Democrats Just Say No to the Military?

Listen up buttercup. There's a military industrial complex that needs feeding. Actually, it's now an Military, AI/Data Center Industrial complex. Think those guys are planning to let Mamdani and his comrades rain on their parade?

Democrats Just Say No to the Military

They’re opposing money to rebuild weapons stocks after the Iran war.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

June 25, 2026 5:48 pm ET

The Trump Administration is asking Congress to refill U.S. military missile stocks after the war in Iran. Yet Democrats are saying no way, and they sound like JD Vance opposing aid for Ukraine when Joe Biden was President. Their argument is no better than Sen. Vance’s.

The Administration is asking for about $87 billion, and most is for the Pentagon ($67 billion). Some $21 billion is marked for munitions. That will help refill air-defense interceptors and other long-range missiles used at high rates, which are also needed to deter China and Russia.

This is a down payment on expanding production so Americans never again read about dwindling weapons supplies days into a war. The President has been pounding missile makers to pick up the pace, but he needs an appropriation from Congress to unlock investment and sign contracts.

There’s also $2.4 billion for drones—you may have heard the U.S. needs more—and $1.5 billion for fuel costs. The Administration says the military is short $17.3 billion for operational costs. The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford was deployed for nearly a year, a dubious post-Vietnam record. Classified programs would get about $12 billion.

The money needs Democratic support to pass the Senate, and the Administration added money to fight the Ebola outbreak and to replace New York’s Penn Station ostensibly to get to 60 votes. So far, no such luck.

“Democrats will not support tens of billions of dollars for Trump’s aimless war,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic appropriator. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, eyes fixed on Tuesday’s progressive victories in New York primaries, added that “we should be lowering costs for the American people, not writing another blank check for Trump.”

But it’s not a blank check for Mr. Trump. It’s money specifically earmarked for soldiers and sailors to defend U.S. interests.

Democrats are bloody-minded enough to deny the GOP anything it can claim as a success before November, which is part of their calculus. Democrats are also terrified of being pilloried by the Zohran Mamdani left as underwriting colonialism and the military-industrial complex.

Republicans are right to press Democrats to support the military funding. The political example is funding for Ukraine, most of which went to U.S. weapons makers. Republicans supported President Biden’s funding requests, despite opposition from their base, even though Mr. Biden couldn’t or wouldn’t articulate a theory of victory.

It will be instructive to see how many Democrats still understand that the American military deterrent is an issue larger than any one President or military campaign. The irony here is that Mr. Trump is on shaky political ground with his “memorandum of understanding” with Iran and its pre-emptive concessions.

But Democrats can’t bring themselves to criticize Mr. Trump from the hawkish right, though it might help them win back voters who think the party is weak on national security. Apparently they’d rather settle for making the futile gesture of a nonbinding war powers resolution and winking at the Democratic Socialists of America.