President Donald Trump appears to be "doing little" to make good on one of his central campaign promises, according to a new editorial.
The conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board argued on Wednesday that Trump is not doing enough to make America's military great again, as he promised to do on the campaign trail. Instead, he appears to be allowing foreign adversaries to form strong alliances. One example of those opportunities is the recent meeting between global leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, and Russian President Vladimir Putin outside of Beijing, according to the editorial.
The editors said the military parade should be a "wake-up call."
"Mr. Trump keeps bragging about the great American military while doing little to make it even all that good again," the editorial reads in part. "He isn’t proposing a real defense buildup or a multiyear increase in spending. It’s an open question this month whether a dysfunctional Congress will get the Pentagon a full budget, rather than more stopgap funding that carves up military readiness."
"If Mr. Trump doesn’t get serious, he’s putting the U.S. in a position to lose a shooting war that this axis of adversaries seems increasingly willing to entertain," it adds.
Not only would these alliances threaten U.S. national security, they would also threaten the security of American allies across the globe, the editorial contends.
"Mr. Xi showed off everything from undersea vehicles to new intercontinental ballistic missiles," the editorial reads. "He’s building a military that can get what it wants when it decides to move, and don’t think his ambitions stop at swallowing the vital U.S. friend Taiwan."