Trump Didn't Inherit a Depleted Military
The Claim
Donald Trump: U.S. national defense budget was left depleted by the Obama administration.
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Emerging story
Donald Trump has repeatedly made claims that former President Barack Obama left the U.S. national defense budget “totally depleted” for when he took over the office.
Users across social media have continued to push this claim.
Misbar’s Analysis
Trump has repeatedly made statements such as Obama left the military with “no ammunition” by the time he took office. Misbar's investigation didn't find any evidence supporting this claim. Trump also made comments in 2018, when he signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2019, saying, “We’ve been trying to get money. They never gave us money for the military for years and years. And it was depleted.” However, records indicate that the Obama administration spent approximately $600 billion on the military in the year preceding Trump.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), shows that Trump’s military budget for his first four years (approximately $2.9 trillion) was more than Obama’s budget during his last four years (approximately $2.7 trillion).
Trump’s military budget for his first four years (approximately $2.9 trillion) was more robust than Obama’s budget during his last four years (approximately $2.7 trillion). However, it was smaller than Obama’s budget during his first four years (approximately $3.3 trillion).
According to the Marine Corps Times,
“The military the president inherited from Obama was not depleted or facing a massive readiness crisis, which resulted from massive underfunding in the Obama years. In fact, according to Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded our troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan and also headed the CIA, and Michael O’Hanlon, there was no readiness crisis and in 2016, the year Trump was elected, the state of our military was “awesome.”
Nor was the defense budget seriously underfunded in the Obama years. If one controls for inflation, in FY2021 dollars Obama spent $3.3 trillion in his first term compared with the $2.9 trillion under Trump. Moreover, while defense spending did decline slightly in Obama’s second term, it still amounted to $2.7 trillion, about $200 million, or 7 percent less, than Trump’s first-term budget. However, this decline was a result of the Budget Control Act or sequestration (BCA,) which was instituted by his current chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who was then a congressman from South Carolina.”
As such, the claim that former President Barack Obama left the U.S. national defense budget “totally depleted” for when Donald Trump took office is false.
