What do you think?
Rate this book
The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home
A hard-hitting investigation into how the Pentagon’s runaway spending embroils America in foreign wars, squanders its wealth, and enriches a privileged elite
“A damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment.”―Publishers Weekly
America spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This extraordinary spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of “security,” our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.
Top policy experts William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman follow the profits of militarism from traditional Pentagon contractors, which receive more than half of the Pentagon’s budget, to the upstart high-tech firms that shamelessly promote unproven and destabilizing technologies. They unmask the enablers of the war machine—politicians, lobbyists, the media, Hollywood, think tanks, and so many more—whose work enriches a wealthy elite at the expense of everybody else, spreading conflict around the world and embroiling America in endless wars.
A damning tour de force, The Trillion Dollar War Machine shows who is pulling the strings and pushing for war, and offers a blueprint for how we can shut down the war machine and restore American security and prosperity.
“A damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment.”―Publishers Weekly
America spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This extraordinary spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of “security,” our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.
Top policy experts William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman follow the profits of militarism from traditional Pentagon contractors, which receive more than half of the Pentagon’s budget, to the upstart high-tech firms that shamelessly promote unproven and destabilizing technologies. They unmask the enablers of the war machine—politicians, lobbyists, the media, Hollywood, think tanks, and so many more—whose work enriches a wealthy elite at the expense of everybody else, spreading conflict around the world and embroiling America in endless wars.
A damning tour de force, The Trillion Dollar War Machine shows who is pulling the strings and pushing for war, and offers a blueprint for how we can shut down the war machine and restore American security and prosperity.
262 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 10, 2025
Whether "fate" or whatever you want to call it, the day before I started reading this book I had a conversation with an acquaintance about how it feels like war and the military are the religion of the United States of America. This is essentially the central thesis of the book.
The authors offer a comprehensive deep-dive and analysis into the centrality of military in American culture, ranging from government spending, policy, tech, academia, and media. Some key talking points that stuck out include:
-Since the Eisenhower era, presidents from both political parties have increased federal budget allotted to the military (oh, the illusion of choice). Thanks to some nice little loopholes, the Big 5 gets to influence a lot of policy thru lobbyists (and the constitution? can be easily bypassed. The law doesn't matter when money is involved).
-After Americans became disillusioned with the idea of "sending our own boys to die abroad" during the Vietnam War, Carter ushered in this new era of supplying local entities to fight proxy wars for the US.
We have spent trillions supplying some ruthless dictators with weapons to fight democratically elected candidates in various regions of the world (and yet somehow the government claims we spend more on social security, even when the US has the worst welfare and life expectancy of any developed nation).
-A lot of the military spending isn't going towards creating new jobs for regular-degular Americans, like Biden asserted as an excuse to justify all the weapon$ sent to Ukraine. In fact, most of it goes towards funding defunct projects at the Big 5 (Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics) like the infamous F-35 or the Sentinel program.
-If you thought academia was safe, think again! As an engineer in academia, it's always frustrating to see how the labs that do research for the military get bottomless pits of money compared to even the average NIH/ NSF-funded labs. That's not even mentioning the amount of predatory recruiting the Big 5 do on campuses, going as far as to host "Lockheed Day"-type dystopian events.
-The military also blows a lot of money on sporting events and movies. Your first-person shooter videogames are not harmless either.
Overall, this book was incredibly well-researched and structured. The language was accessible to a lay audience and the authors don't assume large amounts of prior knowledge to understand the concepts brought forth. I appreciated how recent it is, highlighting how this all plays out in US involvement in the genocide happening in Gaza, and highly recommend everyone who's concerned about how their tax dollars are spent reads it.
The authors offer a comprehensive deep-dive and analysis into the centrality of military in American culture, ranging from government spending, policy, tech, academia, and media. Some key talking points that stuck out include:
-Since the Eisenhower era, presidents from both political parties have increased federal budget allotted to the military (oh, the illusion of choice). Thanks to some nice little loopholes, the Big 5 gets to influence a lot of policy thru lobbyists (and the constitution? can be easily bypassed. The law doesn't matter when money is involved).
-After Americans became disillusioned with the idea of "sending our own boys to die abroad" during the Vietnam War, Carter ushered in this new era of supplying local entities to fight proxy wars for the US.
We have spent trillions supplying some ruthless dictators with weapons to fight democratically elected candidates in various regions of the world (and yet somehow the government claims we spend more on social security, even when the US has the worst welfare and life expectancy of any developed nation).
-A lot of the military spending isn't going towards creating new jobs for regular-degular Americans, like Biden asserted as an excuse to justify all the weapon$ sent to Ukraine. In fact, most of it goes towards funding defunct projects at the Big 5 (Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics) like the infamous F-35 or the Sentinel program.
-If you thought academia was safe, think again! As an engineer in academia, it's always frustrating to see how the labs that do research for the military get bottomless pits of money compared to even the average NIH/ NSF-funded labs. That's not even mentioning the amount of predatory recruiting the Big 5 do on campuses, going as far as to host "Lockheed Day"-type dystopian events.
-The military also blows a lot of money on sporting events and movies. Your first-person shooter videogames are not harmless either.
Overall, this book was incredibly well-researched and structured. The language was accessible to a lay audience and the authors don't assume large amounts of prior knowledge to understand the concepts brought forth. I appreciated how recent it is, highlighting how this all plays out in US involvement in the genocide happening in Gaza, and highly recommend everyone who's concerned about how their tax dollars are spent reads it.
June 22, 2026
book club book we all agreed was a little meh
March 26, 2026
Leftist screed masked under a veil of concerned journalism.
To be clear, the Shah was in power from 1941 onwards; it is wholly inaccurate to describe him as a "deposed prince" seizing control from Mossadegh. Furthermore, the supposedly "democratic" prime minister was a megalomaniac who tried illegally grabbing the property of his political opponents and drove Iran's economy into the ground.
Suggesting the 1979 revolution would not have happened if not for the 1953 coup is typical, low-IQ liberal/libertarian claptrap. The mullahs did not emerge randomly, nor did their Soviet-backed allies.
To be clear, the Shah was in power from 1941 onwards; it is wholly inaccurate to describe him as a "deposed prince" seizing control from Mossadegh. Furthermore, the supposedly "democratic" prime minister was a megalomaniac who tried illegally grabbing the property of his political opponents and drove Iran's economy into the ground.
Suggesting the 1979 revolution would not have happened if not for the 1953 coup is typical, low-IQ liberal/libertarian claptrap. The mullahs did not emerge randomly, nor did their Soviet-backed allies.
April 19, 2026
A very informative exploration of the rise of the military, industrial, congressional, and cultural complex the mandates the Trillion dollar and more military budget. The corruption of all of these aspects of militarism and the new aspects such as video gaming, AI, and the influence of the new technocrats
.
.
May 19, 2026
American life has become expensive. Only two months ago, the national economic gains were dwarfed by the historic national debt. The cost of national debt now exceeds defense spending. President Donald J. Trump, who ran on an "America First" agenda to end the forever wars and bring manufacturing jobs back, has failed spectacularly. Weakening ties with NATO, kowtowing to Chinese leaders abroad, embedding our country in another Middle Eastern quagmire, and supplicating for Putin's approval — Trump continues to betray his MAGA base and the American values he swore an oath to protect. He is the personification of America's decline. The consequences of his weak leadership are beginning to be felt at the pump and in the grocery lines. And to think, his Marie Antoinette ballroom isn't even complete yet.
The prophetic "Chance for Peace" speech from Eisenhower is the battle cry of William D. Hartung's The Trillion Dollar War Machine. The military-industrial complex has only consolidated and become more enmeshed with Congress. Both parties have blurred the lines between their governing congressional bodies and the lobbyists and think tanks that essentially write policy. Whether it's the Reagan "Mandate for Leadership" or the Trump "Project 2025," the policy initiatives both influence and are influenced by the five major defense industry firms. The belligerent spending has come to the domestic sphere too. Americans have faced assault and extrajudical murders by ICE and militizared police. The Brookings Institution only this week stated that some 145,000 children have been seperated from their parents; many of which endure in barbaric detention centers that Americans pay the cost for. Many deaths and sexual assault cases are being stymied from prosecution. These are just some of the abuses of the Trump doctrine; and a reminder that a sycopthantic congress and compromised Supreme Court will not stand up against authoritarian criminality.
Numbers can overwhelm, but they can also give us a sense of the scale of the issues created by the war machine. Some of the numbers that shocked me: the 30,000 suicides by soldiers returning from the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts; the $2.9 trillion spent on Iraq and Syria over the last twenty years; the $250 billion spent to support Israel since its founding in 1948; and one other number — not in the book, but one all Americans should know — the unprecedented $1.5 trillion that the disgraced Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is requesting. When Americans are foreclosing on homes and struggling to pay inflated consumer goods prices, why should they foot the bill for the Pentagon's $6.9 million budgetary line for lobster tails, and another $15.1 million for ribeye steak?
In the wise words of libertarian Representative Ron Paul on the Iraqi invasion: "Violent anti-Americanism has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of 'blowback' is not understood or is denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in." Our country's greatness can be measured by its economic output, its melting pot of immigrants, or the liberal Enlightenment writings of John Locke and our founders — but it cannot be measured by bloodshed and ceaseless trillion-dollar wars.
The prophetic "Chance for Peace" speech from Eisenhower is the battle cry of William D. Hartung's The Trillion Dollar War Machine. The military-industrial complex has only consolidated and become more enmeshed with Congress. Both parties have blurred the lines between their governing congressional bodies and the lobbyists and think tanks that essentially write policy. Whether it's the Reagan "Mandate for Leadership" or the Trump "Project 2025," the policy initiatives both influence and are influenced by the five major defense industry firms. The belligerent spending has come to the domestic sphere too. Americans have faced assault and extrajudical murders by ICE and militizared police. The Brookings Institution only this week stated that some 145,000 children have been seperated from their parents; many of which endure in barbaric detention centers that Americans pay the cost for. Many deaths and sexual assault cases are being stymied from prosecution. These are just some of the abuses of the Trump doctrine; and a reminder that a sycopthantic congress and compromised Supreme Court will not stand up against authoritarian criminality.
Numbers can overwhelm, but they can also give us a sense of the scale of the issues created by the war machine. Some of the numbers that shocked me: the 30,000 suicides by soldiers returning from the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts; the $2.9 trillion spent on Iraq and Syria over the last twenty years; the $250 billion spent to support Israel since its founding in 1948; and one other number — not in the book, but one all Americans should know — the unprecedented $1.5 trillion that the disgraced Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is requesting. When Americans are foreclosing on homes and struggling to pay inflated consumer goods prices, why should they foot the bill for the Pentagon's $6.9 million budgetary line for lobster tails, and another $15.1 million for ribeye steak?
In the wise words of libertarian Representative Ron Paul on the Iraqi invasion: "Violent anti-Americanism has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of 'blowback' is not understood or is denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in." Our country's greatness can be measured by its economic output, its melting pot of immigrants, or the liberal Enlightenment writings of John Locke and our founders — but it cannot be measured by bloodshed and ceaseless trillion-dollar wars.
February 12, 2026
Stiglitz and Bilmes in their book The Three Trillion Dollar War were thorough, unrelenting and on-point in their criticism of the Iraq invasion. I wish that was the case with this examination of the massive machine behind the Pentagon's nearly trillion dollar annual budget. The authors propose stripping funds from the Military Industrial Complex (MIC), only to add to the Welfare Industrial Complex (WIC) and the Global Warming/Climate Industrial Complex (GWIC). Both the WIC and GWIC use many of the same tactics as the MIC to ensure that their taxpayer financed gravy train keeps rolling.
The book presents to the reader ideas almost never discussed, the most interesting of which is eliminating the land-based ICBMs from the nuclear arsenal. They argue that a two pronged (submarines and aircraft) nuclear capability is more than adequate, much safer and much less expensive than the nuclear triad in place since the 1950s.
It describes at length how the financial tentacles of the MIC reach into Hollywood, universities, research think tanks, the news media, gaming and endless lobbying of Congress by both government personnel and military contractors. The MIC prevents opposing viewpoints through exercising financial and access pressure points. The MIC also pollutes discourse by recipients of its largesse failing to disclose their conflicts of interest. For example, a retired general or admiral will spout off on television in a very authoritative manner, without disclosing that he or the research foundation which employs him are financed by the manufacturer of the weapon he is promoting.
Unfortunately, the authors rather extreme leftwing politics frequently limit the solutions they propose. The Poor People's Campaign largely socialist proposals are recommended, but the libertarian Cato Institute is nowhere to be seen. Moving money from defense to social programs is proposed, but not reducing spending to slow growth of the $38 trillion national debt. And green energy is frequently hyped, without acknowleding that windmills and solar panels do not supply persistent power and require oil and gas backup.
Alleged systemic racism, water in Flint Michigan, wages in West Virginia, Martin Luther King, inequality, lbxyz rights, charging House Speaker Mike Johnson with claims of racism, all take a star turn in a book that is promoted to be about the Pentagon's budget and how to bring it under control. The books authors and editors should have pruned about 50 pages of kooky leftwing jibber jabber and ad hominem attacks and stuck to the subject matter.
The book presents to the reader ideas almost never discussed, the most interesting of which is eliminating the land-based ICBMs from the nuclear arsenal. They argue that a two pronged (submarines and aircraft) nuclear capability is more than adequate, much safer and much less expensive than the nuclear triad in place since the 1950s.
It describes at length how the financial tentacles of the MIC reach into Hollywood, universities, research think tanks, the news media, gaming and endless lobbying of Congress by both government personnel and military contractors. The MIC prevents opposing viewpoints through exercising financial and access pressure points. The MIC also pollutes discourse by recipients of its largesse failing to disclose their conflicts of interest. For example, a retired general or admiral will spout off on television in a very authoritative manner, without disclosing that he or the research foundation which employs him are financed by the manufacturer of the weapon he is promoting.
Unfortunately, the authors rather extreme leftwing politics frequently limit the solutions they propose. The Poor People's Campaign largely socialist proposals are recommended, but the libertarian Cato Institute is nowhere to be seen. Moving money from defense to social programs is proposed, but not reducing spending to slow growth of the $38 trillion national debt. And green energy is frequently hyped, without acknowleding that windmills and solar panels do not supply persistent power and require oil and gas backup.
Alleged systemic racism, water in Flint Michigan, wages in West Virginia, Martin Luther King, inequality, lbxyz rights, charging House Speaker Mike Johnson with claims of racism, all take a star turn in a book that is promoted to be about the Pentagon's budget and how to bring it under control. The books authors and editors should have pruned about 50 pages of kooky leftwing jibber jabber and ad hominem attacks and stuck to the subject matter.
June 14, 2026
Actual Rating 7.5/10
First, let me start by saying that as someone who has worked with and/or knows both authors personally, I am so thrilled that they were able to collaborate and put out this important book.
Here are my complaints:
- Quite redundant
- Assumes readers understanding/positions a bit
- Didn't go in as in depth as I would have wanted (especially knowing how much detail and research both authors put into their work)
Now, complaints aside, what an important addition to the literary work of so many anti-war, anti-intervention, etc. authors, thinkers, and activists. I particularly appreciate how much focus is placed on the economics of the whole damn MIC as opposed to a history lesson (which, obviously, I love those books as well). I think especially as more people become curious about why we spend so much on war and/or why we don't have enough money to fund social services, it is books such as this one which will be a first step for those people to become more engaged in the subject matter.
First, let me start by saying that as someone who has worked with and/or knows both authors personally, I am so thrilled that they were able to collaborate and put out this important book.
Here are my complaints:
- Quite redundant
- Assumes readers understanding/positions a bit
- Didn't go in as in depth as I would have wanted (especially knowing how much detail and research both authors put into their work)
Now, complaints aside, what an important addition to the literary work of so many anti-war, anti-intervention, etc. authors, thinkers, and activists. I particularly appreciate how much focus is placed on the economics of the whole damn MIC as opposed to a history lesson (which, obviously, I love those books as well). I think especially as more people become curious about why we spend so much on war and/or why we don't have enough money to fund social services, it is books such as this one which will be a first step for those people to become more engaged in the subject matter.
June 24, 2026
I can't recommend this book enough for anyone even mildly interested in the future of American foreign policy. Even as someone who works in foreign policy and is a vocal critic of the Military Industrial Complex, I found that Hartung and Freeman offer numerous fresh angles and critiques of how the MIC has completely infected daily American life. The most useful part of the book is not the criticism of American foreign policy, but their ideas for how to orient our foreign policy away from such a militant posture. Suggestions to improve transparency in think tank funding and news commentators are interesting, but I really enjoyed their takes on how to adjust American nuclear policy. I will admit I am a perfect audience for the book, being a firm believer in their central thesis, but I also was surprised at how many new ideas and angles I read here. Further, it's a quick and easy read - there's not too much technical jargon, and the ideas are broken into easily digestible segments.
Read
June 28, 2026I guess nobody who has at all paid attention would be surprised at what Hartung lays out here - the title pretty much sums it up. The details about some of the failed plane and ship projects, and how they get perpetuated even in failure were helpfully dismaying, and you come away with an understanding of how cynical the folks in the arms industry are, and how little they actually car about the country, the planet, and doing the right thing. It probably should go on any antiwar activists shelf, even if it is not a classic.
May 10, 2026
A fresh look at the $1 trillion war machine as we move from a handful of primes that had cornered the market (government contracts) to the entrance of tech giants with connections to the administration. A thorough examination of what we forgo as a nation to fuel this system and am accessible intro for anyone looking to learn more
May 7, 2026
Somewhat boring, repeating same story too much
The author is repeating almost the same story too much. somewhat boring. It would be better to be in short context.
The author is repeating almost the same story too much. somewhat boring. It would be better to be in short context.
June 10, 2026
They have their thumb on theproblem.
Next question: What do Americans plan to do about it?
Next question: What do Americans plan to do about it?
June 13, 2026
Eye opening book, wouldn't recommend unless you're interested in Pentagon and military spending. But I enjoyed it. The war in Iran has already made the book in need of an update
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews