Trump Calls for $1.5T Defense Budget
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President Donald Trump last week called for a 50% boost to the Pentagon budget — to $1.5 trillion a year, reports Defense One. He also wants a pay cap for defense contractor CEOs to encourage them to produce weapons faster. Trump said he “will not permit” defense companies to issue dividends or buy back their own stock until they invest more in military equipment production and address several other of his complaints.
Following Trump’s threat shares of several defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman each fell roughly 2%, reports The Hill. Defense stocks then spiked on Thursday morning after Trump called for the defense budget increase, reports Business Insider on MSN. Shares of top contractors clawed back losses from Wednesday’s session spurred by Trump’s statement that he wouldn’t allow the stock buybacks.
Trump specifically criticized Raytheon for what he called the company’s slow response to the demands of the US military and threatened to cut its government contracts if the firm did not restrict stock buybacks, reports Reuters on MSN. “Also, if Raytheon wants further business with the United States Government, under no circumstances will they be allowed to do any additional Stock Buybacks, where they have spent Tens of Billions of Dollars, until they are able to get their act together,” Trump wrote on social media.
Defense contractors are seeking legal advice Trump signed an executive order to tie share buybacks, dividends, and executive pay to weapons delivery schedules, reports Reuters. Lockheed Martin said it “shares President Trump’s and the Department of War’s focus on speed, accountability, and results, and will continue to invest and innovate at scale.”
The US Senate advanced a resolution Thursday by a 52-47 vote that would limit President Donald Trump’s war powers, reports Army Times. The Senate advanced the war powers resolution to limit Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela, sounding a note of disapproval for his expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. It has virtually no chance of becoming law because the president would have to sign it if it were to pass the Republican-controlled House.
Iran warned the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic, as threatened by Trump, reports The Hill. Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf made the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting: “Death to America!” Protest continued nationwide in Iran on Sunday.
US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested on Saturday that the US would intervene to protect protesters in Iran as the death toll from two weeks of demonstrations in the country has only increased, reports Washington Examiner.
Maryland’s 5th District Rep. Steny H. Hoyer announced Thursday he will retire from Congress at the end of this year, reports Maryland Matters. Hoyer said he made the decision with “mixed emotion and reluctant conviction.” In a speech on the House floor, the congressman, first elected in 1981, expressed concern that the US reputation among allied nations has eroded, in part because lawmakers and political leaders have stepped back from core ideals.
Lockheed Martin says it delivered 191 F-35 stealth fighters in 2025, a record for the program facilitated by a backlog of jets held in storage, reports Breaking Defense. That total surpasses the 110 copies of the stealth fighter handed over in 2024, the company said.
Lockheed Martin, Bell, and M1 are among the companies moving to the next phase of the US Army’s Flight School Next program for training aviators at Fort Rucker in Alabama, reports Breaking Defense. In November, several companies — comprised of both prime contractors and subcontractors — were gunning to be the service’s solution for its future training helicopter fleet. With Flight School Next, the Army is looking to shake up the way it acquires both the aircraft and the curriculum, Breaking Defense had reported last year.
The US Marine Corps has selected Northrop Grumman and Kratos to deliver the service’s first batch of drone wingmen, reports Defense News. Under the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft, Northrop will serve as the prime contractor, integrating mission equipment on Kratos’s unmanned XQ-58 Valkyrie.
US Coast Guard forces operating in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean say they achieved the largest annual maritime drug interdiction results in service history in 2025, reports Military.com. The service reported it seized more than 511,000 pounds of narcotics valued at more than $3.8 billion. The service’s average annual seizure weight prior to 2025 was 167,000 pounds.
The US Space Force is looking to expand its West Coast heavy launch capabilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base, reports Defense News. In 2025, Vandenberg completed a record 77 space launch, missile test, and aeronautical operations and now is considering further expansion.
NASA will end its current mission at the International Space Station a month early citing a “medical situation” with one of the crewmembers, reports NPR. The agency is planning to return all four members of the Crew-11 mission. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the crew would return to Earth “in the coming days.”
Greenland is rejecting Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people, reports Military.com. “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and other party leaders said in a statement.
The latest US Labor Department report finds that employment growth slowed more than expected in December amid job losses in the construction, retail, and manufacturing sectors, reports Reuters. A dip in the unemployment rate from 4.5% to 4.4% suggested the labor market was not rapidly deteriorating. Nonfarm payrolls increase by 50,000 jobs in December.
The US Coast Guard has established its new Physical Readiness Program, which includes frequent physical training, twice a year fitness testing, and body composition standards for all of its members, reports Navy Times. Mandatory physical fitness tests are set to begin July 1. Previously, the service only required that most personnel pass a physical test in boot camp and officer training.
The USS Fitzgerald returned home after a seven-month deployment abroad, reports Military Times. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer docked in San Diego last week. During its last deployment, the vessel transited the Strait of Hormuz six times and took part in several multinational exercises with countries such as India and Japan.
It’s important to understand what postmarks really mean, especially when mailing bill payments or other important documents, like your tax return, reports USA Today. Does a postmark reflect the date you mailed something? The answer is no. The US Postal Service is clarifying that in a new “rule” posted to the Federal Register, saying a postmark reflects the date an envelope is first processed by a USPS sorting machine, which could be days after it was dropped off — not the actual drop-off date.
A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found staffing cuts at the Internal Revenue Service will make it more difficult for the IRS to detect fraud, process tax returns, and provide tax help over the phone and in-person at its taxpayer assistance centers, reports Federal News Network. The report also raises concerns that staffing cuts in the IRS’s IT department are delaying the agency’s ability to modernize its systems, including an initiative to digitize much of its paper-based workload.
Contract awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, 2026:
Innovative Professional Solutions Inc., Panama City Beach, Florida, is awarded a $13,631,598 firm-fixed price/cost-only contract for fabrication and installation of minesweeping winches. This contract includes supplies for the government of the Republic of Korea (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania (85%), Panama City, Florida (5%), Norfolk, Virginia (5%), and Busan, Korea (5%), and is expected to be completed by June 2030. FMS (Korea) funds in the amount of $13,631,598 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Florida, is the contracting activity (N61331-26-C-0001).
