Donald Trump Unveils His Blueprint to Rebuild the US Military
With his dueling televised “town hall” event with NBC’s Matt Lauer and his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump rolled out a detailed blueprint for rebuilding the U.S. military on Wednesday afternoon.
The 10-point plan, by Trump’s own admission, is heavily influenced by a number of sources, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Heritage Foundation and the bipartisan National Defense Panel. He made the speech to a packed house at the Union League of Philadelphia.
The 10 proposals are:
- Immediately after taking office, ask the generals to present a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS.
- Ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild our military as soon as he assumes office.
- Build an active army of around 540,000.
- Build a Marine Corps based on 36 battalions, the minimum needed to deal with major contingencies.
- Build a Navy approaching 350 surface ships and submarines.
- Build an Air Force of at least 1,200 fighter aircraft.
- Seek to develop a state of the art missile defense system.
- Modernize naval cruisers to provide Ballistic Missile Defense capabilities.
- Enforce all classification rules, and enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.
- Ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all relevant federal departments to conduct a thorough review of United States cyber defenses and identify all vulnerabilities in the power grid, communications systems and all other vital infrastructure.
Trump was introduced by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.), who briefly addressed a number of issues “in the news” prior to making his introduction. The GOP nominee said his policy could be summed up in three simple words: “Peace through strength.”
“We want to achieve a stable, peaceful world with less conflict and more common ground. I am proposing a new foreign policy focused on advancing America’s core national interests,” he said. “Promoting regional stability, and reducing and easing the tensions in our very troubled world.
“This will require rethinking the failed policies of the past. We can make new friends, restore old friendships, and bring new allies into the fold. We can.”
