The Biggest Blowout in American History: 77-20

In a country dominated by extreme partisanship, it’s rare you see such unanimous agreement.

But last week, Congress authorized over $900 billion in defense spending by a vote of 77-20.

In fact, it’s $8 billion more than what the Pentagon asked for earlier this year, and it's firing that money hose at everything from the Golden Dome to advanced fighter jets.

But more importantly, it demonstrated that — despite what the Trump administration says — America is still willing to defend its interests and its democratic allies abroad.

That might sound weird, but it needed to be done.

I don’t know if you saw it, but last month the Trump administration released its National Security Strategy.

It was… interesting.

On the one hand, it’s what we’ve all come to expect from Trump. It focused overwhelmingly on the American homeland and Western hemisphere rather than foreign threats like Russia and China.

I think that’s fair, but it went a little too far.

It pledged to "enforce a 'Trump Corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine," and castigated Europe for not being sufficiently European (i.e., too welcoming to immigrants).

It called for rapprochement with Russia at the expense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and Europe’s safety.

And it pledged to reorient American military posture away from Europe and the Pacific and to Latin America.

Again, there’s some merit to this.

China, in particular, has expanded its soft power in Latin America through economic and political persuasion. So it’s not a bad idea to reinforce American influence in the region.

But missile strikes on alleged drug boats that border on war crimes and sending a flotilla of warships to the Caribbean in an effort to coerce Venezuela into regime change seem rather excessive.

That’s not just my opinion, either. A Quinnipiac University poll on the subject found that 63% of Americans oppose military action in Venezuela compared with 25% who said they support it.

Furthermore, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to release footage and information related to the strikes, keeping both Congress and the American people out of the loop.

This defense bill addresses that.

It includes a provision that withholds 25% of Hegseth’s travel budget until he sends congressional committees overseeing the military "unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations" in the Caribbean.

The bill also establishes a bulwark for Europe.

It bars the Pentagon from cutting America’s military presence in Europe or relinquishing America’s role in commanding NATO unless the secretary of defense demonstrates to Congress that such actions are in the interest of the United States.

On top of that, it provides a $200 million increase in security assistance to U.S. European Command, $175 million for the Baltic Security Initiative, and $400 million in military support for Ukraine over the next two years.

Meanwhile, with respect to China, the bill fully funds the Pacific Deterrence Initiative; strengthens activities related to the AUKUS agreement between the U.S., U.K., and Australia; and provides new authorities for cooperating with Taiwan.

All of this aims to ensure that America maintains its strength and supports allies outside of the Western hemisphere.

And it’s all in addition to the massive amount of money that’s being directed toward defense programs, like the Golden Dome, and a streamlining of the defense acquisition process to accelerate the development and deployment of weapons and ammunition.

So what am I telling you here?

Well, America is set to spend more on defense than it ever has.

It’s cutting red tape to ensure that money moves through the Pentagon and into the wallets of defense contractors more quickly.

And it’s pushing back on the Trump administration’s turtling away from the outside world to focus exclusively on the immigration issue.

That is all reassuring for defense stocks.

In fact, it’s an extremely bullish development at a time when a lot of investors are worried about the potential collapse of an "AI bubble."

So do with that information what you will.