Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned a tribute ceremony into a trillion-dollar pitch to Congress. The Pentagon chief honored the late Sen. Lindsey Graham while making a major push for military funding at a base renaming event.
Pete Hegseth pressed Congress for a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget at the Lindsey Graham ceremony
CNN reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed Congress to approve a major Pentagon budget increase. He made the appeal during a ceremony renaming Joint Base Charleston after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The South Carolina installation will now be known as Joint Base Lindsey Graham.
Graham died suddenly last month after suffering an aortic dissection. The longtime Republican senator and Trump ally had long advocated for expanding the military. He joined the Air Force Reserves in 1995 and served over 30 years.
During the ceremony, Hegseth urged lawmakers to back the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request. “As we gather here today, the War Department is seeking a historic generational investment of $1.5 trillion for American warriors,” Hegseth said. He also quoted Graham directly during his remarks at the event.
“Lindsey himself said to me in his office, ‘This is the best military budget I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress,'” Hegseth added. He argued that Congress could honor Graham best by fully funding the request. “There could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion,” he said.
The proposed budget would represent a sharp increase from last year’s roughly $800 million allocation. The agency also received an additional $150 billion through separate legislation. President Donald Trump termed that legislation the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Hegseth has recently visited Capitol Hill to rally Republican support for the request. However, Republicans have expressed skepticism amid the months-long war with Iran. Graham retired from the military as a colonel in 2015 after serving as a lawyer while deployed overseas.
Hegseth also used the speech to criticize past military leadership. He targeted what he called “woke, so-called leaders” under previous administrations. He praised Graham for opposing what he described as “a radical leftist ideology” in his final years.
Originally reported by Vritti Johar on Mandatory.com.
