Credible threat: What will DOGE do to the Pentagon?

可信威胁:狗狗币将对五角大楼有何作为?

Editor's Picks from The Economist

2025-02-17

8 分钟
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A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. Reforming the Pentagon is much harder than other parts of government. America's security depends upon Elon Musk and Donald Trump getting it right. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
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  • The Economist. Hi, John Pridow here.

  • I host Checks and Balance, our podcast on US politics.

  • Welcome to Editors Picks.

  • Here's an article from the latest edition of The Economist handpicked by our team and read aloud.

  • I hope you enjoy it.

  • In the Pentagon, they must surely be on high alert.

  • On February 9th,

  • President Donald Trump declared that it would soon become the target for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency,

  • DOGE.

  • Accusing it of hundreds of billions of fraud and abuse,

  • Mr Trump will unleash his insurgents, fresh from feeding foreign aid into the woodchipper.

  • Their work could not be more important or more risky.

  • That is because America's armed forces face a real problem.

  • Not since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and built huge tank formations at the height of the Cold War have America's military vulnerabilities been so glaring.

  • In the killing fields of Ukraine, America is being out-innovated by drone designers.

  • In the seas and skies off China,

  • it is losing its ability to deter a blockade or invasion of Taiwan.

  • The stakes are all the higher

  • because the Pentagon is a place where MAGA ideology meets reality.

  • Mr Trump's foreign policy is transactional.