Trump also said his administration would move quickly to demand allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meet their own obligations to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
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He pledged to ask generals to present a plan “within 30 days” of taking office to “defeat and destroy” militants affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS; vowed to “enforce all laws related to the handling of classified information;” and review US cyber defenses to identify vulnerabilities in the power grid, communications systems and vital infrastructure.
In addition, Trump said that – as President – he would give the U.S. military 30 days to present a plan to “defeat and destroy” the Islamic State, according to proposals released by his campaign.
The first-time political candidate didn’t put a price tag on his plan.
The four-year cost of restoring the Army to 540,000 active-duty soldiers could be between $35 billion and $50 billion, she said. He also called for the expansion of surface ships in the Navy to roughly 350 vessels, up from about 300.
On Tuesday in Tampa, Florida, Clinton seized on Trump’s statement the previous day that if he had been treated like Obama had been on arrival in China last week, he would have ordered the plane to return him home.
“This is clearly ambitious and expensive”, she said in an email.
The military has become “so depleted”, he said, that it requires a large-scale build-up, including troop increases and more aircrafts and ships.
“Generic manpower or generic units or generic equipment has no military meaning”, said Mr. Cordesman. Trump said he would raise USA troop levels to 540,000.
Trump has pushed back on that characterization. That makes no sense at all.
Justin Johnson, a defense-budget expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the US military was in a “downward spiral” at the same time threats from Islamic State, Russia, North Korea and other worldwide and nonstate actors were growing.
“I’m gonna build a military that’s gonna be much stronger than it is right now”.
Mr. Trump cited the Heritage Foundation’s work in his speech.
But Trump on Wednesday outlined multi-billion dollar investments to bolster the USA military, mostly calling for increasing in spending to boost the elements of the military most useful in traditional warfare, not in confronting terrorism. Those limits were established as part of a 2011 budget agreement that set a decade’s worth of spending caps to try to reduce the federal budget deficit. The caps took effect in 2013 after lawmakers failed to reach a debt-reduction deal, and are enforced by a mechanism called sequestration. “They’re old, they’re exhausted”, Trump said.
Donald Trump plans to ramp up U.S. military with hundreds of new ships, planes and submarines.
Democrats said Wednesday they aren’t willing to change their budget priciples. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii), a member of the Senate appropriations panel.
Trump also contrasted his vision of USA foreign policy with Clinton’s record, accusing her of being “trigger happy and very unstable” and describing a Middle East that was more stable before her tenure as secretary of state.
“Hillary Clinton’s legacy in Iraq, Libya, Syria has produced only turmoil and suffering and death”, he told the audience.
“She’s trigger-happy and very unstable”, Mr. Trump said.
Trump has some convincing to do on foreign policy. Other polls show Clinton’s lead has shrunk. “Donald Trump has finally admitted that he has no strategy to defeat ISIS”.
Clinton’s campaign accused Trump of relying on “childish insults” during the Philadelphia speech.
The Republican presidential nominee will lay out his plans in a speech in Philadelphia.
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“Trump has offered empty promises and divisive rhetoric”, Mr. Kaine said. A lot of voters will be asking themselves: Is she tough enough?
