
Pentagon weighs major cuts to top of US military
CNN
The Pentagon is considering making significant cuts to the top of the US military as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal government, according to a briefing document obtained by CNN and a US defense official.
The Pentagon is considering making significant cuts to the top of the US military as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal government, according to a briefing document obtained by CNN and a US defense official. The plans under consideration include consolidating combatant commands, possibly eliminating a directorate that oversees development, training and education for the joint force, and halting the expansion of US Forces Japan. Among the eye-catching measures being considered are merging European Command and Africa Command into a single command based in Stuttgart, Germany, and combining US Northern and Southern commands into a single AMERICOM command, according to the document obtained by CNN. The document was prepared this month by US defense officials for senior leaders, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has pushed the Pentagon and other federal agencies to make sweeping cuts to save money. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a video last month that DoD would be leaning on DOGE to help the department “find fraud, waste and abuse in the largest discretionary budget in the federal government.” The US military’s current annual budget is over $800 billion.