President Trump headlines a defense industry summit today at the Army War College, touting battlefield tech investments while the Iran war has burned through American missile stockpiles that will take three years to rebuild — and the taxpayer gets the bill.
The permanent war party doesn't lose elections. The same defense contractors, Wall Street investors, and Washington officials who profit from conflict are ringing the same buffet regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Blackstone President Jon Gray, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet, General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg — they're all at Sen. Dave McCormick's Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, and the White House says the goal is to "identify investment opportunities." Translation: find new ways to spend your money.
An analysis released in May found that U.S. military contractors will need at least three years to replenish stockpiles of Tomahawk cruise missiles, Patriot interceptors, and THAAD systems — all depleted by repeated U.S. strikes on Iran, according to the Press Democrat. Breitbart's coverage doesn't mention the stockpile crisis at all, framing the summit as simply bringing together leaders "to accelerate innovation and strengthen America's defense industrial base." One outlet tells you the cupboard is bare; the other treats the event as a ribbon-cutting.
Last year, McCormick's summit produced $90 billion in pledged investments across Pennsylvania. This year's has already generated announcements from ZeroEyes ($10 million for AI research) and Gecko Robotics (a new manufacturing facility). Trump is seeking what the Press Democrat describes as "a historic $1.5 trilli—" before the source cuts off. That trailing figure tells you everything about the trajectory.
Also in attendance: SpaceX director Antonio Gracias and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar. The tech firms are there because the money is there. Follow it.
Meanwhile, China's Xi Jinping warned Trump during a recent Beijing visit that mishandling Taiwan relations could lead to open conflict — and the arsenal that would matter in that fight is being fired into Iran. Trump also pledged to let Ukraine produce Patriot systems, further straining a supply chain already stretched past the breaking point.
Republicans are reportedly "increasingly concerned about the war and the persistently high cost of living" ahead of November's midterms, per the Press Democrat. They should be. The same party that campaigned on ending forever wars is now presiding over one that's depleting the arsenal and draining the treasury with no defined exit.
The war machine doesn't care who's president. It only cares that the contracts keep flowing and the stockpiles keep needing replenishment. The question nobody at the summit will answer: what's the cost, and when does it stop?
