US President Donald Trump signed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law Thursday, completing the passage of the largest military spending bill in US history—$901 billion, or over $1 trillion when combined with supplemental funding passed earlier this year.

The Senate voted 77-20 on Wednesday to pass the bill. The Democratic leadership, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, voted for the bill. They were joined by Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, both of whom released a video last month calling on military personnel to disobey illegal orders—as Trump was sending the US military on a murder spree off the coast of Latin America.

Citing Trump’s statements about using troops to shoot protesters in America, Slotkin invoked the legacy of the Nuremberg tribunals, which convicted Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against peace. But when it came time to vote, this invocation was revealed to be completely meaningless. Slotkin voted to hand Trump the resources to pursue his military adventure against Venezuela…

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        So you think the DNC should have just let defence budget lapse until a better deal magically manifested?

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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          7 hours ago

          Why not? Apparently that’s how MAGA thinks things should be handled. They should be happy to see Dems adopting the same strategy.

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            Why not? Because the world is at the precipice of WWIII due to the USA’s diplomacy going limp and heavy aggression from Russian and Chinese expansionism. Whatever tens of millions suffer because of Republican letting social safety nets falter, which is not mutually exclusive mind you, is nothing compared to the amount of suffering caused if hostilities broke into US backed nations and states across the pacific.

            It’s one thing to say “we should spend less on military” or “the military should be able to pass audits”, but to say “defund the US military” is some clear Tankie propaganda shit of the highest order.

            • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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              3 hours ago

              I’m not advocating for dismamtling the military, but I do think we should hamstring the MAGA traitors as much as possible. Only a small minority of Americans truly support these PedoCon Traitors, and we shouldn’t allow them to turn the entire world against us. Limiting their use of the military via budget and legislation and courts is the responsible thing to do for the future of our country.

              Once America is back in the responsible hands of sane adults, we can talk about re-establishing a reasonable military budget.

              • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                These pedocon traitors are the majority in congress. They write the offers and we either have a military budget or we don’t. There is no middle ground we can claim.

        • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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          15 hours ago

          Yes, that would be the correct thing to do. The DOD isn’t going to go without money while legislators haggle over spending for the next fiscal year.

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            That is exactly what would happen. That’s how budgetary spending works. If congress doesn’t pass it, they don’t get the money.

        • Stern@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          So you think we shouldn’t try to rein in Trump starting another forever war?

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            The bill mentioned by the Chinese propaganda outlet above is the passing of the annual military budget. It increased by a very large amount this year because Republicans and fascists are running the show.

            It has NOTHING to do with Trump starting another forever war, any more than not signing it has to do with welcoming a Chinese invasion across the pacific. It explicitly only has to do with how much the USA is spending on its military specifically for 2026.

            • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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              15 hours ago

              It increased by a very large amount this year because Republicans and fascists are running the show.

              OK…

              It has NOTHING to do with Trump starting another forever war

              Which would greatly benefit from increased defense spending. So it looks like, in fact, it has a lot to do with it.

            • uncouple9831@lemmy.zip
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              16 hours ago

              Straight to the point, I think the main thing was giving soldiers a raise.

              Even a government shutdown doesn’t prevent trump from starting another war. He can do literally anything he wants, clearly including war crimes, with the military he already has.

              • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                War crimes and also just plain old third degree murder. He used to joke about walking down park ave and shooting somebody in the face, well I guess he proved it correct when he blew up boats full on unarmed civilians.