Hegseth Says Proposed $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Is ‘Message to the World’

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will spend its budget wisely and squeeze ‘everything possible into the best capabilities in the world.’

U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushions unload equipment onto the beach as U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Ospreys and CH-53 Super Stallions fly overhead during the America's Marines 250 event at Camp Pendleton's Red Beach in Oceanside, Calif., on Oct. 18, 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images

War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 12 said President Donald Trump’s call for a $1.5 trillion military budget for fiscal year 2027 is a “message to the world.”

Hegseth highlighted ongoing efforts to expand the U.S. military and reform defense production and procurement during a stop in Fort Worth, Texas, on Jan. 12 as part of his multistate Arsenal of Freedom tour.

“We are rebuilding the arsenal of freedom. President Trump did it in his first term, and we’re going to do it again. We had a historic budget last year,” Hegseth told a crowd of Lockheed Martin executives and employees at a company facility on the afternoon of Jan. 12.

“If you saw, the President announced the goal of $1.5 trillion for our national defense in 2027,” Hegseth said. “That is a message to the world.”

A $1.5 trillion military budget for the 2027 fiscal year would amount to a 66 percent increase from the fiscal year 2026 budget request of $901 billion.

Such a budget increase would bring the United States close to a NATO alliance goal to have each member nation commit 5 percent of its gross domestic product to defense spending, up from a goal of 2 percent of member gross domestic product set in 2014. Trump had championed the new NATO spending goal.

The president raised his call for a $1.5 trillion military budget days after U.S. forces breached Venezuela’s air defense network in a pre-dawn raid and captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from a fortified compound. F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets—both of which Lockheed Martin helped design—took part in the Jan. 3 operation in Venezuela.

As he addressed Lockheed Martin employees on Jan. 12, Hegseth said the Trump administration would wisely spend “every dime” of its military budget.

“We’re going to find every savings that we can in the couch cushions, to make sure we’re squeezing everything possible into the best capabilities in the world, like the ones you build here,” he said.

“We ultimately don’t care what the name is on the side of the missile or of the plane or of anything that’s made. At the War Department, we just want the best, and our expectation is that every company competes, and every company competes on a level playing field.”

On Jan. 7, Trump issued a warning to leading defense contractors to reinvest in their production and discontinue stock buyback and shareholder dividend payouts, or risk losing business with the U.S. government. Trump specifically called out arms maker Raytheon in his message.

On Jan. 6, the Pentagon announced a seven-year partnership with Lockheed Martin, with a goal to triple production of Patriot surface-to-air missiles.

In December 2025, the Pentagon also announced a contract with Lockheed Martin, with a $328.5 million ceiling, to procure military equipment for Taiwan’s military as the island faces persistent pressure from the Chinese communist regime.