One of President Donald Trump's priorities when he took office in January was to rebuild a military that had been sorely neglected by the Biden administration for four years. Among his early actions, Trump addressed issues such as military excellence and standards for troop readiness, the negative impact of DEI programs on leadership and unit cohesion, and reinstating members of the military who had been discharged under the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Trump, of course, is also concerned about the United States' adversaries. During Biden's term in the Oval Office, China significantly beefed up its military, particularly its blue water navy, to project power globally. Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, explains a trend in shipbuilding that he sees as a problem.
"We have a major adversary in Communist China, and they are building ships at a rate far in excess of ours. We're sort of at parity now, but the trend is toward China – and we need to catch up," he tells AFN.
But China isn't the only problem, says the Mississippi Republican. "We're facing what I call an axis of aggression," he explains.
"It's not only Communist China, but it's the dictator Putin's Russia, [it's] North Korea – and then, of course, there's the Iranian situation. So, it's a four-pronged axis of aggression – and there's no question they're working together against our interests.
"I've been saying at almost every hearing we've had in the Armed Services Committee, which I chair, that this is the most dangerous national security situation we've seen really since World War Two, and we need to admit that."
According to the senator, the recently passed reconciliation bill will provide a $150 billion investment in America's military.
On the NATO front …
When it comes to national defense, Wicker is pleased that most of America's NATO allies are paying a bigger share of their economies.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited the White House last week to advance critical efforts in supporting Ukraine's defense against continued Russian aggression. Wicker met twice with Rutte during his time in the nation's capital.
"Of course, the good news is our NATO allies, particularly the ones in Europe, are very much trying to fulfill their goal now," he says. "We were having trouble during the Biden administration getting them to spend 2% of their economy on their contribution to national defense and they've recently promised to do 5%. So, it's a huge accomplishment by the Trump administration."
But Wicker called one of the NATO allies to task. "Our Canadian friends in NATO are not doing anywhere near what they should do … but most countries are. So, NATO is taking a bigger share of protecting the European countries, which is as it should be."
