The massive ongoing military operation against the tyrannical government in Iran has made it clear that failure to rethink and reimagine the Department of War and its budget is no longer an option because the world continues to be a very dangerous place.
Thankfully, we’re already seeing a new industrial revolution underway in America. In just over a year, the Department of War under the leadership of President Donald Trump has completely reignited our nation’s Defense Industrial Base (DIB). The age of glacial-paced development and a bloated, self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy is over. A new mandate, driven by a sense of patriotic urgency, has been issued to American industry: innovate, invest, and build at the speed of war.
War Department leadership understands that the golden age of American manufacturing will not be won by prioritizing Wall Street elites outsourcing our factory floors. To secure our future as the most powerful nation on Earth, we must put our own plants and our own people first. The result is an arsenal of freedom being rebuilt, right here in the United States, by patriots working tirelessly to deliver peace through strength on behalf of the American warfighter. Trump’s recent post on Truth Social about enhanced defense “production and production schedules” should tell us all we need to know about the importance of this effort.
For decades, a bipartisan consensus in Washington hollowed out our DIB from the ground up. Career politicians were content to offshore our industrial capacity, and, with it, our national sovereignty. Trump’s War Department has made it obvious that the era of managed decline is over. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s “Arsenal of Freedom” tour sent a clear signal to the American DIB to build more and build faster. The Trump Administration, however, understands that declarations alone are insufficient. Action speaks louder than rhetoric, and that action is being unleashed through the landmark “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
The legislation delivers multi-billion-dollar investments to supercharge our defense industrial capabilities. Of the funds allocated, $29 billion is deployed to revitalize our shipbuilding, $25 billion is appropriated to ramp up critical munitions production, and another nearly $25 billion serves as a necessary down payment for the rapid development of the “Golden Dome for America” missile shield. An additional $2 billion will be strategically utilized by the Defense Innovation Unit to scale cutting-edge commercial technologies for military applications. Through this new law, our most critical defense systems are once again being forged by the skilled hands of American workers, and the resulting surge in competition is propelling the most innovative capabilities at a pace unseen in generations.
At the very heart of this renewal lies our small businesses, which are booming yet again. To that end, Trump and the War Department have designed a comprehensive ecosystem to aggressively support their participation and unleash their full potential. Through programs like Project Spectrum, Mentor-Protégé and the LYNX digital platform, the department is further simplifying access and making it easier for small businesses to navigate the complex federal landscape and compete for contracts. As a result, not only have smaller companies emerged as the vanguard of the future fight – they’ve become the lifeblood of the DIB and remain a vital part of the defense supply chain.
This tidal wave of momentum extends to the titans of industry as well, who will be held to the highest standard and are expected to rise to the occasion. In a significant move, Boeing recently announced that it will return its Defense, Space & Security headquarters back to the industrial heartland of St. Louis. Additionally, in January, the War Department made a groundbreaking $1 billion direct-to-supplier investment into L3Harris, radically bolstering the production of much-needed U.S. solid rocket motors. Defense vendors, whether large, medium, or small, have heard Trump’s demand for speed and innovation, and they’re running with it. Such monumental growth across the entire defense sector could have only been achieved by the president’s aggressive America First policy to rebuild the military and revitalize the DIB.
But behind every statistic and enterprise are the great Americans who show up to work each and every day. The engineers, machinists, technicians, and mechanics. The “helmets and hard hats,” as Hegseth says. Our domestic workforce is the backbone of this nation – the warriors behind our warriors. These are the heroes whose skill and dedication are writing the next chapter of American power, giving our warfighters the tools they need to project absolute lethality against the enemy, wherever and whenever they must.
Ultimately, a strong DIB means a strong America. It means a better, more affordable life and a future where our children can find good-paying jobs in their hometown once again. It means our nation is secure, our prosperity is real, and our destiny is forged on the solid foundation of American industry. This is the promise being delivered today on factory floors across the country. Make no mistake: As we’re seeing in places like Venezuela and Iran, the arsenal of freedom is roaring again, and with it, the American dream itself.
David Bossie is the president of Citizens United and served as a senior adviser to the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign. In 2016, Bossie served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President and deputy executive director for the Trump-Pence Transition Team.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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