Trump’s Defense Spending Exaggerations

President Donald Trump exaggerated the size of the defense budget in a couple of ways in recent speeches and remarks:

• In West Virginia, Trump said that “we have secured … a record $700 billion for our military” this fiscal year and $716 billion — the “most amount ever” — for next year. Trump is referring to budget authority, not actual spending. This year’s budget authority is not “a record.” Next year will not be the “most amount ever,” when adjusting previous years for inflation.
• In Brussels for the NATO summit meeting, Trump claimed that the U.S. defense budget is 4.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. It hasn’t been above 4