Hegseth urges Congress to approve record $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Congress to approve a sharp increase in the Pentagon’s budget during a ceremony renaming a military base in South Carolina after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, CNN reports.

The base, formerly known as Joint Base Charleston, has been renamed after Lindsey Graham, a veteran and longtime advocate of expanding the armed forces who died last month from an aortic dissection.

“As we gather here today, the War Department is seeking a historic generational investment of $1.5 trillion for American warriors. And Lindsey himself said to me in his office, ‘This is the best military budget I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress.' (...) This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this base, but there could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion,” Hegseth said.

In his remarks, the secretary also criticised the “woke, so-called leaders” of the armed forces under previous administrations and noted that Graham had devoted his final years to fighting radical left-wing ideology.

By Jeyhun Aghazada