UPDATE: Donald Trump Takes Office as the 47th US President
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- Start date
I like to step a step back and observe from the point of view of a man black man at a museum. What am I looking at here? What does the American withdrawal from Afghanistan look like to me? For clarity, I think of the Vietnamese people at the Parisian airport for guidance and context. What does a story of people sent to help fired right before rolling up their sleeves? What would they think of that? I think of the movie Batman where Lucious flies to Hong Kong to deliver the message he wasn't going to launder the money.
Is that a month’s salary or a couple of hours?
They'll treat you like Colin Powell. For context, they'll treat your ass like Kemet did King Tut and wipe your ass from the pages of history. You're in the middle of men like George Washington and Bill Clinton, sworn foes of Black people.
M
The job report only reflects individual who filed unemployment. The next job report will look more grimmer
The job report only reflects individual who filed unemployment. The next job report will look more grimmer
Silly non black woman talmbout Trump gon have us in a recession by summer... Dude got it done at the start of spring!!!
Watching the whole thing felt bizarre like something coming from another world !
Damn ! Orange Julius Cheetos the first and repubs really fucked things up !
He really thinks that people will pay him directly to be exempt from tariffs.
I would bet even money that this is exactly what trying to talk to Trump about anything is like. he just fixates on the least significant part of your sentence and then makes the stupidest decision(s) imaginable regarding it.
Military News
Army Planners Are Weighing Force Reductions of Up to 90,000 Active-Duty Soldiers
U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, give tactical hand movements during a combined arms live fire exercise at Super Garuda Shield 2024 in Puslatpur 5, Indonesia, Sept. 6, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Mariah Aguilar)
Military.com | By Steve Beynon
Published April 03, 2025 at 5:14pm ET
The Army is quietly considering a sweeping reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops, a move that underscores mounting fiscal pressures at the Pentagon and a broader shift in military strategy away from Europe and counterterrorism, according to three defense officials familiar with the deliberations.
Internal discussions are exploring trimming the force to between 360,000 and 420,000 troops -- down from its current level of roughly 450,000. The potential cuts would mark one of the most dramatic force reductions in years, as military planners aim to reshape the Army from a blunt conventional force into what they hope could be a more agile, specialized instrument better suited for future conflicts. It's unclear whether any cuts are being mulled for the Army Reserve or National Guard.
The move comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Pentagon to come up with plans to cut 8% from the budget. Hegseth has long criticized what he describes as "woke" initiatives within the military, though that critique has centered on ill-defined cultural grievances and confused the force on how to comply and on what exactly needs scrubbing.
Read Next: 'Psychological Warfare': Veterans Fired from Federal Government Speak Out at Informal Hearing
Efforts to combat climate change -- acknowledged by military leaders for years as a pressing national security issue -- have also come under scrutiny in Hegseth's Pentagon. Eliminating such programs alone would not yield anywhere close to 8% savings, making reductions in combat forces likely unavoidable.
The discussion of cuts comes as the Army is spread especially thin across the world, juggling counterterrorism missions in Africa and the Middle East, which are basically legacy missions from the Global War on Terrorism era, while building its footprint in the Pacific to counter Beijing's expansionist goals.
Moreover, the Army has effectively been the quarterback in bolstering NATO's front lines amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's ongoing war on Ukraine, a mission that the Trump administration has frequently scoffed at.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels, delivered a blunt message: President Donald Trump expects European nations to increase their military spending significantly.
"He's against a NATO that lacks the capabilities needed to fulfill its obligations under the treaty," Rubio said. "This is a hard truth, but one that must be addressed."
The Army has not detailed how or where potential cuts would be made, and the service declined to comment. One defense official cautioned that such internal reviews frequently consider a range of scenarios -- including extreme ones -- and that no final decisions have been made. Each of the three officials was granted anonymity to avoid retaliation because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Still, some officials have voiced concerns that a dramatic reduction in force levels could exacerbate an already difficult recruiting environment and drive skilled personnel away.
"If we reduce the force without a clear retention strategy, we risk losing talented people who have other options," another official said.
The idea of shrinking the Army may already be percolating within the Pentagon. Austin Dahmer, a former national security adviser to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is now a senior Defense Department policy staffer, who could play a key role in force structure.
In 2023, he penned a white paper for the Marathon Initiative, a Republican-centric national security think tank, that makes the case for dramatically scaling back the Army's size in favor of reallocating money spent on the land force to the Air Force and the Navy -- arguing that in a war with China, many of the Army's capabilities, such as the Paladin tracked artillery vehicle, would be obsolete in island-hopping campaigns.
However, the dramatic reductions would be difficult without cutting into the Army's light infantry brigades, which would likely be critical in seizing terrain in massive cities.
"One of the largest bill payers in resourcing the strategy of denial should be the Army. This is because the size of the Army's large-scale land maneuver forces is principally scaled to the threat of Russian invasion of NATO territory," Dahmer wrote in the white paper. "Large-scale land maneuver forces are of much less utility in the vast maritime and littoral theater of the Western Pacific."
One defense official noted that Dahmer has had no role in the Army war-gaming reducing the force.
On Thursday, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee criticized Pentagon "midlevel" staffers for what he described as a misguided plan to reduce the number of troops in Europe, though it's unclear what staffers he was referring to.
"There are some who believe now is the time to drastically reduce our military footprint in Europe," Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said at a hearing with U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command military leadership. "I'm troubled at those deeply misguided and dangerous views held by some midlevel bureaucrats within the Defense Department.
"They've been working to pursue a U.S. retreat from Europe, and they've often been doing so without coordinating with the secretary of defense," Wicker said.
If the Army reduced the size of its active-duty force by the estimates under consideration, it could be far more dramatic than the announced plan to reduce the size of the force by about 24,000 last year. Then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters the service was cutting positions associated with counterterrorism.
The Army at the time announced a cut of about 10,000 positions for engineers and similar jobs that were tied to counterinsurgency missions. Additional cuts came from cavalry squadrons, whose relevance has dwindled with the advancement of drone technology. Support roles in special operations were also scaled back.
At the time, Wormuth noted the service wasn't cutting soldiers themselves out of the Army, but that the lion's share of those cuts were job positions, many of which weren't even filled.
The move also comes as the service is seemingly digging itself out of a yearslong recruiting slump, which has been attributed to a lack of qualified candidates.
The Army was uniquely affected, being by far the largest service and thus having the most ambitious enlistment quotas. Still, the Army met its recruiting goals last year and is on track to see a healthy haul of enlistments this year, largely due to pre-basic training courses for applicants who did not initially meet academic or body weight standards.
-- Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
Related: Top US General Argues Against Giving Up Command of NATO at Senate Hearing
Related Topics: Military Headlines Army Budget Policy Counterterrorism
Steve Beynon
About Steve Beynon
Steve Beynon is a reporter for Military.com based out of the Washington, D.C., area whose detailed investigations have covered urgent issues impacting soldiers. He has an extensive background in covering senior military leadership conduct, the Pentagon's recruiting struggles and extremist organizations. Read Full Bio© Copyright 2025 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here.
Army Planners Are Weighing Force Reductions of Up to 90,000 Active-Duty Soldiers
The Army is quietly considering a sweeping reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops, a move that underscores mounting fiscal pressures at the Pentagon and a broader shift in military strategy away from Europe and counterterrorism.
yeh but the problem is they have plenty more to lose
we dont
i mean i dig the "haha you got hit in the face"
but we are getting kicked in the balls.....hard
its funny but it aint that funny
Ditto. I actually had a meeting with her back when she was first running to become a Rep.Yeap and she's my Fucking US rep
I was shocked by her down to earth sailor mouth. She was 5 or 10 minutes late and walked in cursing and talking shit. Offered me a nasty ass seltzer water which I faked drink because I was there with a purpose in mind.
*her lips always look cracked and dry. I was staring at them MFs like, I could put a little moisture on them MFs for you.
reason number whatever as to why i side eye all these fucking "progressives"
they are just as delusional and in it for themselves and these asshole MAGA fuckboys -
i am coming to despise the " i cant vote for this "dem" crowd " they literally helped elect this fucking shithead Trump ....
cheap labor
if youhave no job and have to work - then they can give you that farm job or job at the meat processing plant
its Burn the fields and kill the livestock manner of warfare- you destroy the land and give people no other choice but to accept whats availible to do to survive.
Did you find someone who should be her replacement yet?Yeap and she's my Fucking US rep
Trump’s tariffs make Maga hats more expensive
President charges $40 for merchandise but cheaper bestsellers are made in China, which has been hit by the biggest leviesFintan Hogan
Friday April 04 2025, 3.40pm BST, The Times
Merchandise on sale at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee last year
ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
President Trump’s tariff regime is intended to affect every corner of the globe but there is one group that may not have been expecting a direct hit to their finances: the Maga faithful.
Since Trump successfully ran for the presidency a decade ago his supporters have spent millions on campaign merchandise, most famously red caps emblazoned with “Make America Great Again”.
Though caps bought directly from the Trump campaign, often for $40 or more, have since 2019 been “100 per cent proudly made in the USA” by a supplier in California, overseas vendors have flooded the market with cheap copycats.
President Trump tossing a Maga hat into the crowd as he announced his tariffs
ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES
More than 90 per cent of the bestselling presidential campaign merchandise listed on Amazon has a seller’s address in China, according to the Financial Times. From April 9 China will face the highest US tariff of any country, with Trump adding a 34 per cent levy to an existing 20 per cent imposed earlier this year.
• Trump tariffs live: Follow the latest market reactions
Many retailers list their products as merely “decorated in America”. In 2022 a clothing company based in Utah was fined more than $200,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for adding “phony” Made in America labels to imported clothes.
Ninety-seven per cent of the clothes and shoes sold in the US are imported, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association.
More than half come from countries in Asia with low labour costs, many of which have been hit with the highest levies.
Trump’s tariffs make Maga hats more expensive
Trump charges $40 for Maga merchandise but cheaper bestsellers are made in China, which has been hit by the biggest levies
www.thetimes.com
I guess this helps Black people too 
read the reply at the bottom
Donald Trump posts brutal video of air strike that could actually be evidence of WAR CRIMES
US President Donald Trump said he would target Houthis in Yemen until the group stopped targeting commercial vessels in the red Sea using the Suez Canal in Egypt
News
Anders Anglesey News Reporter
08:03, 05 Apr 2025Updated 08:57, 05 Apr 2025
Donald Trump shares footage of airstrike against Houthis
Donald Trump shared footage of photo of a controversial air strike that he said targeted dozens of Houthi rebels, though others have argued war crimes were committed.
Footage, which appeared to have been shot on a drone, showed some 70 people surrounding one person before a huge explosion rocked the area. The blast sent up a fireball and dark plume of smoke up. When the camera zoomed out, vehicles could be seen close to the remote site. As the smoke cleared, dozens of bodies were seen on the ground alongside a large crater Mr Trump had claimed the group were Houthis who were plotting a terrorist attack. Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, he said: "Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis. They will never sink our ships again."
It is not clear when the footage was recorded. There have been some fears from prominent critics that the group could in fact have been a local Eid celebration. Details of military strikes by the US in Yemen were exposed following the publication of messages shared in a private Signal group chat where a journalist was accidentally added.
Members of the Trump administration boasted about the attacks in the group. US national security adviser Mike Waltz said in the group that the Houthis "top missile guy" was killed shortly after he walked into his "girlfriend's" building.
The incident was a major scandal for the White House with many critics arguing the accidental adding of the journalist showed a high level of incompetence and risked revealing government attack strategies. Defenders argued the messages revealed few such details.
Mr Trump on Monday vowed to continue striking the Houthis until the terrorist group stopped targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea and using the Suez Canal. He said on Truth Social: "The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks. Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us.
"We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed."
But targets were reported in heavily populated areas in Yemen with civilians believed to be among those who died. Niku Jafarina, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, argued Houthis blocked off "any and all access" to bomb sites and hospitals meaning the full extent of the devastation is unknown.
"There is no question there are civilian casualties," she told The Guardian. "Residential areas are being hit in the middle of the night, which is a sure-fire way to kill civilians."
Houthi-run Saba news agency claimed the US had bombed a cancer hospital twice and accused the Trump administration of "full-fledged war crimes by targeting civilians and civilian objects." The Yemen Data Project, which assesses attacks in the country, also claimed at least 25 civilians, including four children, were killed.