Trump's defense budget comments leave experts scratching their heads

President Trump surprised defense spending experts when he revealed plans for a defense budget cut during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. But beyond his cryptic comments, nobody seems to know or be willing to say whether the top-line figure for fiscal year 2020 represents a major cut to national defense or if it’s closer to a rounding error.

“We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department; it will probably be $700 billion,” Trump said at the White House. “So, it was 700, 716, that’s a very substantial number, but it’s defense, it’s very important, to us without defense, maybe the rest of it doesn’t mean very much.”