Skip to content

Trump and the Military Industrial Complex

President Donald Trump talks to Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson and Director and Chief Test Pilot Alan Norman in front of an F-35 fighter jet in 2018.

Trump addressed the UN today:

Your pacifist isolationist president “praying” we don’t have to use our vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Since he’s such a stable genius I feel so safe.

Oh, and by the way, via TPM:

Investigation into a $1 billion fund allotted by Congress to the Pentagon in March to bolster the country’s supplies of medical equipment reveals that the funds have been mostly diverted to defense contractors and used to manufacture military equipment like jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.

The Washington Post reported the finding which demonstrates how a taxpayer-based effort to combat COVID-19 was redirected to stockpiling military supplies.

Passed earlier this year, the Cares Act distributed funds to the Pentagon to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” But per the Post, in a matter of weeks, the Defense Department began reshaping how that money would be used — diverging from the original intent of Congress for the funds. 

The payments were made despite warnings from health officials as recently as last week that suggested there continue to be major funding gaps in responding to the pandemic. CDC director Robert Redfield, testified to the Senate last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year.

The funds could also be used to fill what continues to be a severe shortage of N95 masks at some hospitals knees-deep in their fight against the virus. But in the months after the stimulus package was passed, the Pentagon made other plans for the money.

According to the Post’s report, the Pentagon instead decided to give defense contractors hundreds of millions of dollars from the fund, mostly for projects that have little to do with the coronavirus response. Defense Department lawyers quickly determined that the funds could be used for defense production, a conclusion that Congress later disputed.

Aaaaand from the WaPo:

The N95 shortage America can’t seem to fix: Nurses and doctors depend on respirator masks to protect them from covid-19. So why are we still running low on an item that once cost around $1?

Published inUncategorized