THE SET-UP: Donald Trump is unlike any president who came before him. He’s a real “change agent.” He’s a “disruptor.” He’s taking on the Deep State and he’s draining the swamp. And through DOGE, he’s taking on Waste, Fraud & Abuse™ throughout the federal government. But that’s not all … he’s even sending Elon’s and his chainsaw to the Pentagon!
Yup. After years of growth in defense spending (and multiple failed audits), President Trump—the self-described peacemaker who opposed “stupid wars” in the Middle East (but is currently prosecuting an undeclared war in Yemen)—has the cojones to do what no other President would or perhaps even could do.
He’s cutting … nothing.
In fact, instead of cutting a defense budget that dwarfs the combined defense budgets of China and Russia, Trump and Pete Hegseth touted their plan to pass the $1 trillion mark for the first time. I hate to rain on Trump’s parade, but if you tally-up all the spending on defense-related programs in other agencies (like nukes in the Dept. Of Energy), defense spending has been over one trillion dollars for the last decade.
Speaking of parades, Trump is also committed to staging the $92 million military parade he reluctantly scuttled during his first stint in the White House.
Paging Elon Musk…
I guess an authoritarian display of military hardware for no other reason beyond the narcissism of an elected official doesn’t quite rise to Musk’s standard for Waste, Fraud & Abuse™ … not like Sesame Street for Iraqi kids.
As for DOGE’s long-awaited slashing of the famously bloated defense department?
Yeah, Elon Musk is busy crippling Social Security’s infrastructure and insulting Peter Navarro. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t make over to the Pentagon with his chainsaw. If he did, he find his old PayPal pal’s Palantir among the new cadre of tech companies now angling to feed at the world’s most reliable trough. - jp
TITLE: Why Palantir Stock Is Soaring Today
https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/04/08/why-palantir-stock-is-soaring-today/
EXCERPTS: Palantir shares jumped after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans for a first-ever $1 trillion Department of Defense budget. During a press event on Monday, Trump stated the upcoming budget would be "in the vicinity" of $1 trillion. That's a big jump from the $892 billion Congress allocated this year.
Defense Secretary Hegseth was even more explicit, posting on X that "COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar @DeptofDefense budget," adding that they "intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely -- on lethality and readiness."
While Palantir has significant commercial operations, a major contributor to its bottom line is the U.S. DOD. The news that the DOD budget would not see its budget cut -- as Trump had indicated earlier this year -- but would actually grow could mean more contracts for Palantir and other contractors.
Still, shares of Palantir -- even after a 35% decline over the past few months -- are trading at an insane multiple. Its price-to-earnings ratio is still above 400. That is absurdly high and anything less than perfection from the company will spell trouble for investors.
TITLE: Defense Stocks Surge on Upcoming Federal Budget Boost (LMT)
https://www.gurufocus.com/news/2766876/defense-stocks-surge-on-upcoming-federal-budget-boost-lmt
EXCERPTS: The White House's announcement of a significant increase in defense spending for the fiscal 2026 budget has sparked a noticeable rise in the stock prices of major defense contractors. Among them, Lockheed Martin (LMT, Financial) saw its share price rise by 3.78%, reaching $447.11.
Lockheed Martin (LMT, Financial), as a leading defense contractor renowned for its high-end fighter aircraft, particularly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, benefitted from this boost. The company's financial metrics reveal a strong Altman Z-Score of 3.36, indicating financial health. Despite challenges such as declining gross and operating margins, Lockheed Martin exhibits predictable revenue growth, with a consistent increase in dividend yield close to a 10-year high.
The company's fundamentals are underscored by its market capitalization of $104.88 billion, earnings per share (EPS) of 22.26, and a forward PE ratio of 16.44, demonstrating its substantial presence in the Aerospace & Defense sector. Despite the insider selling activity, which may cause some concern, the company's long-term growth prospects remain strong, bolstered by a stable revenue growth rate and a relatively low beta of 0.34, suggesting lower volatility.
With defense budget allocations on the rise and Lockheed Martin's solid financial footing, LMT appears well-positioned to capitalize on future market opportunities, making it an attractive option for investors seeking stability and growth in the defense sector.
TITLE: The fix is in for new Air Force F-47 — and so is the failure
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/f-47-air-force/
EXCERPTS: If and when it finally comes to be written decades from now, an honest history of the F-47 “fighter” recently unveiled by President Trump will doubtless have much to say about the heroic lobbying campaign that garnered the $20 billion development contract for Boeing, the corporation that has become a byword for program disasters (see the KC-46 tanker, the Starliner spacecraft, the 737 MAX airliner, not to mention the T-7 trainer.)
Boeing, which is due to face trial in June on well-merited federal charges of criminal fraud, was clearly in line for a bailout. But such succor was by no means inevitable given recent doubts from Air Force officials about proceeding with another manned fighter program at all.
“You’ve never seen anything like this,” said Trump in the March Oval Office ceremony announcing the contract award.
Well, of course we have, most obviously in recent times with the ill-starred F-35. Recall that in 2001 the Pentagon announced that the F-35 program would cost $200 billion and would enter service in 2008. Almost a quarter century later, acquisition costs have doubled, the total program price is nudging $2 trillion, and engineers are still struggling to make the thing work properly.
Thus, succeeding chapters of the F-47’s history will likely have to cover the galloping cost overruns, unfulfilled technological promises, ever-lengthening schedule shortfalls, and ultimate production cancellation when only a portion of the force had been built.
There seems little risk in predicting the F-47 — “a beautiful number," said the 47th president — will follow the same dollar-strewn path. As Trump truthfully remarked, “we can’t tell you the price.” And don’t imagine that, if the development phase reveals that the program can’t fulfill any or most of its projected requirements, the Air Force will call it a day and kill the program. The official Air Force press release accompanying the announcement states: “This phase will produce a small number of test aircraft for evaluation. The contract also includes competitively priced options for low-rate initial production.”
In other words, the fix is in. “Low rate initial production” means that subcontracts will be spread across the political landscape, ensuring the creation of an unstoppable lobby preventing any future effort to strangle this boondoggle in its cradle.
For confirmation, look only at the F-35, 1,000 or so copies of which were cranked out before Lockheed got the go-ahead for full-scale production. In confident anticipation that nothing will interrupt the production cycle, Boeing has invested a reported $2 billion in expanding production facilities at its St. Louis, Missouri, plant, where production of the F-15EX (a costly version of the venerable F-15, originally gold-plated to sell to the Qataris) is due to end this year.
[T]he most notable feature of the F-47 program is that it will purportedly not fly alone, but be accompanied by unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or drones, “as many as you want,” according to Trump. The Air Force plans to buy 1,000 of them, at around $30 million a pop.
Under the overall direction of the F-47 pilot, they will in theory at least be able to engage enemy planes, attack targets on the ground, or perform reconnaissance. Two contractors, General Atomics and Anduril, are already competing for the initial CCA contract and have been displaying mockups of their candidates at trade shows since last year while hurling insults at each other via social media and the trade press.
“Anduril is the Theranos of defense,” jibed General Atomics spokesman Mark Brinkley during the Air Force Association jamboree in Washington D.C. last September, referencing the infamous Palo Alto startup that fraudulently claimed to perform comprehensive medical diagnostics from a single drop of blood. Both contestants are supposed to put prototypes in the air this summer.
Pentagon insiders are not impressed either with the concept or at least progress to date. One veteran observer of technologically ambitious programs suggested to me that the Air Force staff officers supervising the CCA program may be easy prey for the contractors.
“They’re not nearly skeptical enough about General Atomics or Anduril. I don’t see any of the skepticism they should be exhibiting for pouring out this kind of money,” the observer said.
Hopefully, these glib enthusiasts will be mulling the problems associated with the software required to enable an F-47 “quarterback” pilot to oversee the operations of the wingmen drones. After all, their peers in the F-35 program are still struggling with “Technology Refresh-3,” the latest (failing) effort to make the plane’s software work adequately. Mulling other inevitable problems facing an F-47 in combat, such as surviving enemy efforts “to find you, track you, and kill you” before getting into position to deploy the unmanned aircraft with their missile loads
“I don’t know why we’re doing it, I don’t get it,” the observer concluded.