US planning to reallocate $50 billion of Pentagon budget, fire generals: Reports

President Donald Trump's administration is planning to cut $50 billion in various areas of the Pentagon budget and reallocate the money to others considered priority areas, such as preventing illegal migration.

A list of generals and admirals who could be fired had been drawn up and circulated to Republican members of Congress. Acting deputy secretary of defence Robert Salesses asked defence officials to find at least $50 billion that can be cut and transferred to "programmes aligned with President Trump's priorities", Military Times reported, while NBC reported that the allocations for the Indo-Pacific region would not be touched.

Earlier reports said the cuts would be 8 per cent, and gave the impression that they would be net cuts to the overall budget, which now stands $849.8 billion.

NBC said according to officials, the list of those to be fired targets those closely associated with former defence secretary Lloyd Austin, worked on minority-oriented programmes, or "have voiced opinions that Trump's allies viewed as politically out of line with his agenda”. It was not known if the top military official, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff C.Q. Brown, was on the list.

Trump has already fired coast guard head Admiral Linda Fagan, the country's highest-ranking woman defence official. In the ongoing plan to fire probationary employees to streamline the government headcount, several defence department employees have received notices about terminating their services.

NBC said besides the Indo-Pacific, several other areas were exempt from cuts in the budget realignment. These include the operations on the US border with Mexico to prevent illegal migration, missile defence, and autonomous weapons. Salesses said Trump's priorities included building the Iron Dome missile defence system and safeguarding the borders while "ending radical and wasteful government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes" for minorities.