President Trump traveled to a U.S. Army base on Monday to formally approve next year’s $716 billion defense budget.
In addition to funding the Pentagon and more military personnel, there’s money for new equipment – everything from tanks and fighter jets, to submarines, warships, missile defense and the nuclear weapons program.
But the legislation also seeks to counter a range of Chinese government policies.
To discuss:
- Vladimir Golstein is a professor of Slavic Studies at Brown University.
- Michael Johns is a former speechwriter for U.S. President George H. W. Bush and a co-founder of the National Tea Party Movement.
- Qinduo Xu is a senior fellow with the Pangoal Institution – a policy center in Beijing.
- Simon Marks is the president and chief correspondent for Feature Story News.
For more:
The U.S. defense budget for 2019 tops $716 billion. It's the largest spending plan the Pentagon has ever received and underscores President Trump's desire to strengthen the U.S. military 'like never before.'https://t.co/Yuj1DOOTui
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) August 14, 2018
Moscow said U.S. defense budget is many times greater than that of Russia's and it's groundless for Washington to portray Russia as a threat https://t.co/EYkqldetPa pic.twitter.com/QCXvtRDrAz
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 14, 2018