Trump: Clinton Legacy ‘Turmoil, Suffering, and Death’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday called for scrapping budget caps that have constrained military spending and vowed to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding the Armed Forces.

Recalling Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra, Trump advocated less foreign intervention and a stronger military to deter adversaries.

“Promoting regional stability, and producing an easing of tensions within our very troubled world. This will require rethinking failed policies of the past.”

“I am proposing a new foreign policy focused on advancing America’s core national interests. So important,” he said at a speech before the Philadelphia Union League. “Promoting regional stability, and producing an easing of tensions within our very troubled world. This will require rethinking failed policies of the past.”

Trump burnished his military credentials this week with endorsements from 88 retired generals and admirals. In his address, he called for getting rid of the budget deal known as “sequester” that congressional leaders negotiated with President Obama in 2011. That deal reduces both military and discretionary domestic spending.

Trump laid out a series of specific proposals regarding the military. He said he would ask generals for a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy the Islamic State, which controls large chunks of Syria and Iraq.

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Trump said he would increase the active-duty U.S. Army to a force of about 540,000, in line with the proposal of the Army chief of staff. The active-duty Army has declined from about 553,000 in 2009 to about 479,000 and is on track to fall to 450,000 under the current budget proposal.

The Republican nominee endorsed the assessment of The Heritage Foundation that the Marine Corps needs a minimum of 36 battalions to be ready for major contingencies. It currently has 23. Trump backed a proposal made by the bipartisan National Defense Panel for a navy of 350 ships and submarines, up from 276 today, which is below even the 313 in the Navy’s own plan.

Trump called for 1,200 fighter aircraft in the Air Force — another Heritage proposal. The current fleet stands at 1,113.

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“Any time we hear people use these numbers, we’re grateful,” said Justin Jonson, a senior policy analyst who studies military issues for The Heritage Foundation.

Johnson said the think tank develops an annual index measuring U.S. military strength based on three criteria — size, modern capabilities, and training and readiness.

“All three of these, we’re very concerned about where they are,” he said. “We need to be able to have a military that can operate overseas.”

Beyond conventional arms, Trump called for the development of a state-of-the-art missile defense system and a modernization of America’s naval cruisers in order to provide ballistic missile defense capabilities.

Continuing on the path set by President Obama, Trump said, invites aggression.

“Our adversaries are champing at the bit,” he said. “History shows that when America is not prepared is when the danger is by far the greatest. We want to deter, avoid, and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength.”

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Trump said that shortly after taking office, he would ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all relevant federal departments to conduct a thorough review of U.S. cyber defenses to identify all vulnerabilities in the country’s power grid, communications system, and all vital infrastructure. He took an opportunity to poke Democrat Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified information, specifically pledging to honor all classification protocols.

“Hillary Clinton has taught us, really, how vulnerable we are in cyber hacking,” he said. “That’s probably the only thing that we’ve learned from Hillary Clinton.”

Trump said his administration would promote “diplomacy, not destruction,” in contrast to Clinton’s record as secretary of state, which he said brought nothing but “turmoil and suffering and death.”

Trump said Clinton’s impulse to intervene has destabilized the Middle East and cost American lives.

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“She’s trigger-happy and very unstable,” he said. “Whether we like it or not, that’s what going on. She’s also reckless.”

The current Pentagon budget is about $600 billion, not including combat operations in the Middle East. Military spending is slated to fall to $551 billion in the fiscal year 2017 proposal. Under long-term budget projections submitted by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates prior to the sequester deal, military spending would have been about $649 billion in FY 2017.

To finance military investments, Trump called for eliminating wasteful spending, and he offered some specifics. He said improper payments throughout the government are estimated at about $135 billion a year, and unpaid taxes are as high as $385 billion annually. He cited a study counting $320 billion spent last year on 256 expired laws. Cutting that by 5 percent would free up almost $200 billion over 10 years, he said.

Trump also repeated his vow to force North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to meet their commitments to contribute at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). He said he also would seek additional payments from Germany, Japan, and Saudi Arabia and other countries that rely heavily on the United States for security.