On a historic day for America, President Trump signed three crucial executive orders from the Oval Office, marking a significant leap in modernizing U.S. military defense and restoring our maritime dominance. These orders, signed on Wednesday, April 9, are a testament to our commitment to strengthening national security and solidifying America’s place on the global stage.
Leading the charge, President Trump inked the executive order titled, “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.” This decisive action emphasizes the importance of shipbuilding and maintaining a merchant marine capable of supporting military endeavors. White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf echoed this priority:
“As you have consistently identified, restoring our maritime dominance as a nation is very important – from shipbuilding to having a merchant marine capable of supporting military efforts up and down the line – restoring maritime dominance has been a priority of this administration.
This executive order, which was prepared primarily by your National Security Council staff, has a number of very significant policy steps, all aimed at restoring American maritime dominance, and ensuring that we have the shipbuilding capacity to compete, both militarily, and in the civilian space,” Scharf said.
Watch President Trump signing executive orders to bolster United States Military capabilities in the video below.
In a dynamic move to enhance defense capabilities, Scharf highlighted the need to revamp the defense procurement process:
“Our current defense procurement process has been criticized by many folks on both sides of the aisle as being too slow to adapt to new and changing technologies, and not delivering the sorts of weapons and systems that our warfighters need in order to compete on the battlefields of the future.
With this executive order, we are going to be modernizing the procurement structure the Department of Defense uses, to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances around the world. We are also going to be launching a review of our existing procurement programs to ensure that we are getting value for the money, and to ensure that we are getting the best possible systems in the field,” Scharf said.
President Trump, never one to mince words, responded with clarity:
“And which are currently horrible. That process is ridiculous – what they do, they get the highest price, and it’s not even good-looking equipment. And we’re going to change it to the best. So, this is very, very important,” President Trump said.
The final executive order, “Reforming Foreign Defense Sales,” aims to streamline the U.S. ability to provide critical weapons systems to our allies. Scharf elaborated:
“In the defense space, one persistent issue that we’ve had, in terms of foreign defense sales – we are unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours. A key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the process by which we approve foreign military sales.
So, this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, and other relevant departments and agencies, to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating American jobs and provide revenue to American defense manufacturers, but [also] provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way,” Scharf said.
President Trump aptly affirmed the significance of these changes:
“Our budget is just about approved, and it’s a big budget. We want to spend the money properly, and get the best equipment in the world.
We rebuilt our military entirely during my first term, but we have to fix it up a little bit [more], and that’s what we are going to do. We are going to do a good job of it, too,” President Trump said.
In a move that echoes this commitment, President Trump has proposed nearly a $1 trillion defense budget to secure our nation’s future. This robust funding will ensure that American forces are equipped with cutting-edge systems, maintaining our position as a global powerhouse.
