So much spending has been unchecked for decades and always without regard for efficiency, which is why Trump keeps insisting that he can make the Pentagon "just as effective but for half the money".

The new Trump administration has made some pretty groundbreaking moves, starting with the dismantling of agencies such as the infamous USAID (or perhaps moving its activities back to intelligence services?). However, that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the endlessly corrupt US federal institutions. Aided by the likes of Elon Musk and his DOGE, Trump aims to either reform and resize them significantly or outright dismantle them all. The ongoing reshuffling in the FBI is a good example of this, with the new director Kash Patel (who also just took over the ATF) and his upcoming deputy Dan Bongino poised to make historic changes in the disgraced agency. There have also been announcements that both the Fed and Fort Knox will be audited, which is a truly unprecedented move as no president in recent memory (or ever) dared question either of those.

This also extends to American states, particularly the DNC-dominated California, infamous for its neoliberal extremism. The new Trump administration is now launching audits and investigating the state's exorbitantly expensive and inefficient projects, especially as its governor Gavin Newsom is demanding $40 billion in federal relief funds for LA fires.

American taxpayers are furious that their money is being wasted on senseless "projects" (although all of us "conspiracy theorists" would call them money laundering schemes), both at home and abroad. Expectedly, there's quite a lot of pushback from the corrupt federal institutions, but there's no going back now, especially as US citizens themselves are adamant that closure is essential. However, all this pales in comparison and makes little sense without addressing the elephant in the room – the Pentagon.

The US military is by far the largest spender of the federal budget (nearly a seventh of around $7 trillion). So much spending has been unchecked for decades and always without regard for efficiency, which is why Trump keeps insisting that he can make the Pentagon "just as effective but for half the money". It's highly questionable whether he'd be able to do it, because he made similar promises during his first presidency, but the US military budget kept increasing regardless.

On the other hand, Trump has strong political reasons to reshuffle the Pentagon's top echelons of power, particularly those installed by his political opponents in the Deep State. To that end, on February 21 he fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr. and another five senior Pentagon officers. The move is certainly political, but it's hardly surprising or unjustified.