Judging Freedom - Matt Hoh : Pentagon Budget Greater than One Trillion.

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Matt Hoh : Pentagon Budget Greater than One Trillion.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, December 16th, 225. Matt Ho joins us now. Matt, thank you, my dear friend. Always a pleasure.

I want to talk to you at some length on the terrific research you did recently on the true magnitude of the Defense Department's budget and how numbers of dollars going to the Defense Department are hidden even from members of Congress. Congress. But before we get there, some recent developments that I want to call to your attention, the Secretary of Defense, who calls himself the Secretary of War announced just a few minutes ago that the tape of the murdered shipwrecked survivors being murdered, well, floating in the sea, according to Congressman Himes for 45 minutes

and then being murdered that the tape of that will not be revealed because it's classified. Well, obviously, they can declassify whatever they want because they've released the tapes of all these other killings, Matt, in the Caribbean, right? Well, Judge, thanks for having me back on. Absolutely. And a week after, you know, they had the results of the signal gate

investigation come out where was shown just how cavalier Pete Hegsess was in sharing the details of impending U.S. airstrikes on Yemen, including manned aircraft, how he shared that not just with a reporter from the Atlantic, but also his wife and brother. But now this post-mortem footage of the massacre, the murder of two men adrift at sea. hanging on to the wreckage of a supposed drug boat, but we have no idea about the reality of that either. Yeah, it's just all fairy tale. It's all

theater. It's all performance. It all, you know, I get this sense that they feel almost like they're running out of time. Like, let's just get to it. Get to it already with this Venezuela operation because it's becoming too much for us to go through this production over

and over again. I mean, because even a guy like Hegsef, whether he's sober or not, knows that what he's saying is just ridiculous, is ludicrous. And so even these men and women, even Christy Gnome, the Pam Bondys, the Marco Rubio's, I think they all have their limits in what is possible. And I think with this, they're reaching the end of that. And, you know, how much more do they have to lie?

How much more do they have to obfuscate before they're allowed to actually carry out the war that they want? And so I think that's what we're seeing here. I think, you know, there's probably some idea in their heads that once we get Ukraine settled, then we can move on to Venezuela and we'll, you know, be a great way to start the new year. Maybe that's, you know, their judge. But no, this is just, you know, the fact that we have to sit through this and watch this, not simply as observers, but as citizens, is, you know, infuriating. Well, this will infuriate you even more. We have the clip of him saying it. And then we're going to follow it with another clip made just a few minutes afterwards by Senator Adam Schiff, who has seen the tape and argues how vital it is for the American, well, for members of Congress to see it.

He only showed it to eight of them, I think, and for the American public to see it. So, Chris, back to back, number 17 and number 18. Also going to tomorrow allow the Hask and Sask to see the unedited video of the September 2nd, alongside, side with Admiral Bradley, who has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls, and we're glad he'll be there to do it. But in keeping with longstanding Department of War Policy, Department of Defense Policy, of course we're not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public. Hask and Saskin, appropriate committees will see it, but not the general. The public should see this, and I hope that we'll have support

to make it public. I found the legal explanations. the strategic explanations incoherent but i think uh american people should see this video and all members of congress should have that opportunity i certainly want it for myself all right well i guess we're still looking for uh the senator schiff uh clip but you can see how how he doesn't want the american public to know uh what happened he has no choice but to show it to the committees when we find the senator schiff clip you'll see the intimation in there that congress may uh may order it to be made public do we have it chris here we go the public should see this and i hope that we'll have support to make it public i found the legal explanations

and the strategic explanations incoherent but i think uh american people should see this video and all members of Congress should have that opportunity. I certainly want it for myself. You know, the first time we looked at that, which was all fair, I didn't notice that Heggseth was scowling over the Sheriff's shoulder. Right. I mean, that's one thing that is interesting, I think, for people who haven't been in these spaces is the proximity that these men and women are in of each other all the time. And so they will often say these types. of things with their adversary, literally standing right next to them, as we saw in that clip. Adam Schiff, of course, Senator of California made his bones the last number of years on Russia Gate.

I mean, the idea that we're supposed to now trust Schiff when he lied for years about issues of foreign affairs, you know, that's a bit rich. But I think Schiff's description of the incoherence that has come from here, just like the upside down reality, as if we're talking to a drunk toddler or listening to a drunk toddler with their explanations as to why they, you know, did something. You know, the idea, it's very simple. It's very clear, I think, to most of us, judge, that if they show the video, then everybody knows that they're lying. Everyone knows that Tom Cotton lied his butt off with regards to this.

These men were not trying to flip over a boat and get back into the fight and radio their comrades to link up with them or whatever story, cotton in the administration have put forward. So I think they're going to try and do everything they can to keep this hidden until, you know, something else can surpass the interests or the attention of the media. And if all of that isn't enough, To get under your skin, this probably will as well. This to me, even though the invasion of Iraq was under false pretenses, but with the belief of weapons of mass destruction,

what we will now play for you to me is an insult to you, to veterans, and to the people standing behind Trump as he articulated. Watch this. Number 19, Chris. But there's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentany. into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans. That's why today I'm taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country. With this historic executive order I will sign today, we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is.

No bomb does what this is doing. 200 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. that we know of. So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Now, legally, that means nothing. It's like calling somebody a narco-terrorist. It's just a political statement. But how does the military who lost life and limb under the false belief that they were pursuing

weapons of mass destruction, think about this kind of nonsense? Well, it goes a step further than that, Judge, because within the veteran community, you've had an overdose epidemic greater than you've had in the general society. So whether it's because of veterans self-medicate, medicating to deal with their wounds, whether it be physical or psychological from the war, using narcotics as a method to try and manage their trauma, or the fact that the VA overprescribed opioids for many. years. Within the veteran community, we've had many, many overdoses, again, at a greater rate than you find in the general public. The last young man that we lost from my company that was in Iraq, one of our corpsmen, one of our sailors, Doc Henley, he overdosed a few years ago. Whether that was accidental or a suicide, doesn't really matter to his wife and kids, does it? I don't I don't want to gainsay this at all. It's horrible, but the numbers are nowhere near what the president said. It's about $50,000 a year. It's $50,000 too many, but it's not $200,000. Right, exactly. So this exaggeration, right? And that's, I think, the point for veterans, as you were asking, you know, in the military, the idea that we had this Iraq war, we went to it on these lies of weapons of mass destruction. And then you have this epidemic, this scourge.

you know, still in the veterans community from overdoses, and they're lying about that in order to get another Iraq war, right? I mean, so just the insult upon insult here, just the abuse, the basement of the military and veterans for rank political purposes, for obscene, you know, for just obscenities that are cloaked in these justifications that can't even hold up to you releasing a tape. You've got to make this big lie up about how it's top secret. What about the other 24 videotapes you've released, Mr. Secretary? You know, I mean, those weren't top secret.

You know, I mean, so this is just, I think, as you're alluding to, Judge, just one more brutalization, one more diminishment or debasing of the military and the veterans community by politicians for their own political self-interest. Wow. How large and what contributes to, how large is and what contributes to the Pentagon budget for 2026? So the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization, which was just passed by the House and awaiting confirmation by the Senate, and this is the reconciliation. So this is the compromise between the two houses. The National Defense Authorization Act, which is done annually, is $901 billion. And that enc covers the entirety of the national security establishment. So people will sometimes see different numbers on the Pentagon budget. That's because the Pentagon is appropriated. of money directly, just as the Department of Energy is appropriate money directly for the nuclear weapons program at Madges, just as the intelligence programs are appropriated directly.

And that causes all kinds of confusion because it's not very clear. It's rather opaque, you know, not transparent. But if you look at the NDAA for FY26, you're looking at a $901 billion. authorization to spend money for the nation's national security interests. And this covers, again, the Pentagon, it covers the intelligence programs, it covers the military assistance programs and the weapons sales that fall under the Department of the State, and it covers the Department of Energy. What it doesn't cover are three key things. One is a supplemental that was passed last spring by the Congress that gave the Pentagon $153 billion more. Of that $153 billion, over our

100 billion of that is applied to FY26. So when you look at the actual amount of money appropriated for national defense for FY26, it's not 901 billion, it's over a trillion dollars. However, that leaves out two very important things. One leaves out the cost of veterans care. And if anyone thinks that veterans care shouldn't be included in the overall cost of our national defense, I don't know what to tell you. You haven't been paying attention for the last. decades, you know, so the cost this year judge for the Veterans Administration, for health care, for benefits, for disability pensions, et cetera, for men and women like myself, it's $440 billion. Oh, good Lord. Right. I mean, so you have within the VA a massive budget that is 50% higher

than the actual Pentagon budget was in 2001 just by itself. And that's, And on top of that $440 billion for the Veterans Administration, you have interest payments. So go back to 2021 at the time of the American departure or retreat from Afghanistan, those 20 years from 2001 to 2021, by that time in August of 2021, the U.S. had spent over a trillion dollars in interest already on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And by 2030, the estimate is that we all spent $2 trillion just on interest and debt payments on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's just the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When you bring in the entirety of this military spending, the entirety of the war spending over the decades, we spend conservatively $300 billion a year on interest for the military and past war spending. Right. And that's a conservative estimate. You know, so when you look at the trillion dollars will spend servicing the $37 trillion debt, the conservative estimate is that $300 billion of that is for past military spending and war spending. So when you put all that together, Judge, the cost that we will spend on war and militarism for the coming year is not $901 billion. It's more like $1.7 trillion.

Oh, good Lord. That does not count the central intelligence agency whose budget is not made known to the public. It does. The CIA is included in that. And this is where it gets really difficult because there's a military intelligence program and a national intelligence program. But the military intelligence agencies also get money out of the national intelligence program. So we do know that the top line number for our intelligence programs, whether they be the CIA or the, the NSA and all the 16 other intelligence agencies that fall under the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. We do know that that budget is about $115 billion. But of course, there may be other billions of dollars that are tucked away in other accounts. And then certainly there's a lot of stuff that occurs off the books that we know the CIA has been involved with

and other intelligence agencies have been involved with throughout the years. a one-shot deal of appropriations to Israel? Where do they come in? So they're funded separately. So what you have is a military assistance program that goes through the State Department and is funded through the State Department authorizations. So when you look at the $3.8 billion a year

that we've been giving Israel for the last 10 years, which as many, as people are aware, is up for renegotiation, and now the Israelis want a 20-year deal, And if we've been giving them $3.8 billion over the last 10 years every year, we can imagine we're probably giving them $5 or $6 or $8 billion a year going forward. I don't think that's far-fetched. But that $3.8 billion we give every year to Israel as well as, say, the billion dollars we give to Egypt every year. And the billions of dollars that get spread throughout the world, that comes out of the State Department budget, as well as to the, you know, arms sales come out of the State Department. as well. So, you know, in addition to what I just explained there in terms of the costs that

aren't included in the ADA, you do have tens of billions of dollars that go to military assistance in arms sales that fall underneath the State Department. So it's another way to hide the cost of our militarized foreign policy. Wow. Should Trump have mocked Rob Reiner within 24 hours of his being slaughtered in his own home? Judge, I think if anyone was in doubt that Trump is one of the greatest narcissists of all time, you know, reading that, that tweet or that truth social post of his about Rob Reiner and the hours after the discovery of Reiner and his wife's death and immediately having to attribute it to himself, right?

Rob Reiner's murder has to be about me. I mean, you know, if anyone had any doubt about the scale of this man's narcissism, but, you know, just the sense that we have a president who can't keep his mouth shut, who can't be decent for more than a couple hours. I mean, it's just, you know, this is a state of the country reflected in our leadership. And when, you know, as that old saying goes, a fish rots at the head, I think you can, you know, look and you can see that clearly here with the U.S. Well, last question for you.

Actually, I'll play a little clip, and then you can respond to it. Chris, I'm looking for the clip where Zelenskyy, oh, here it is, number 15, watch this. And it will only work if there is true accountability, if the punishment of the aggressor becomes inevitable. Yes, it's not easy, but it's not as difficult as some may try to portray it. Right now, European leaders have the decision on the table regarding frozen Russian assets. Most of these assets allocated in Europe, and these Russian assets can and must. must be fully used to defend against Russia's own aggression. The aggressor must pay.

I don't know where Trump is on this, but here is Zelensky asking his European benefactors to steal, to steal $300 billion from banks. I mean, what's the effect going to be on the banking industry if a government can just go go in to a bank account and take the money. Well, that's certainly, Judge, what the Belgians have been saying. They're the ones who have the bulk of the money in their bank, that Euroclear bank. But now we see more countries coming out, particularly Italy, saying this is wrong. This is fundamentally wrong.

This is breaking the law. And it's going to have really great repercussions. There are going to be consequences here. The Russians have already started legal proceedings against the Belgians. And, you know, the idea, too, as well, that the Russians will say, that's said we will essentially go tip for tat if you take away our assets you steal our assets we will steal the assets that we possess of your of your people you know i mean so the madness in all this and i think what we're seeing you know in that speech by zalensky i think what we've seen in the

last couple days coming out of the europeans is the understanding that the jig is up uh and that the war on ukraine is going to come to an end unless there is some type of of event that occurs that precludes that, that forces the war to go on. But I think for the most part, the Europeans, including the Zelensky, understand that the war is coming to an end. And for the Europeans, the issue then is how do we keep this project going? How do we keep this grift going? How do we keep this need for our public to be afraid going

in order for us to prosper, in order for us to benefit, in order for us to even stay in power. And so I think now this idea of, say, this loan, yeah, a large part of it was to ensure the Ukrainian government doesn't collapse, right, to make sure that the Ukrainian government can pay their salaries, that pensioners receive their money, the fire trucks are still running, as well as the fact that the troops on the front lines are able to have bullets and shells and the things that they need. But also, too, for the Europeans, Judge, a lot of this was the fact that that couple hundred billion dollar loan that they're talking about, that gets repurposed, that gets recirculated. That stays within Europe. A lot of that money is never going to leave

France or Germany or the UK. It's going to go right into their weapons industries, their technology companies, their development consultants, right? I mean, all those parasites, all those vampires that feed off of the ruination and the carnage of the Ukraine war, I think there is an aspect of a Keynesianism here. I've seen more people talking about this in terms of the Europeans recognizing how much they have hollowed out their continent, how they have deindustrialized so much, have they neglected the needs of their people so much, that the only thing to keep Europe afloat, maybe I'm getting a little hyperbolic here, but the only thing that they envision seeing, keeping Europe afloat and maybe kickstarting it to a new phase is this infusion of money into

their defense sector that somehow war spending, just as it did say in the United States in the 1940s, is going to revolutionize, rebuild, restart their economy. And so the desperation here that's coming from the Europeans, I think, is only going to worsen in the next couple of weeks as we potentially come closer to this, you know, god-awful war finally coming to an end. Matt Ho, thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated, my dear friend. we'll look forward to seeing you next week absolutely thanks judge thank you and coming up later today at three o'clock colonel karen koukowski and tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock tucker carlson john the palatano for judging freedom

Thank you.