WSJ: Trump Is Dragging Auto Giants To The War Footing
- 16.04.2026, 8:09
The Pentagon is already negotiating.
The US may expand weapons production at the expense of civilian industry. The Pentagon is already in talks with major automakers and industrial companies.
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.
According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. defense officials are discussing with businesses the possibility of attracting production facilities for munitions and military equipment. The companies in question are General Motors and Ford Motor, among others.
The talks, which have been held with representatives of the auto giants, are preliminary and cover a wide range of issues, from the possibility of quickly repurposing plants to barriers in contracts and tenders.
It is also reported that US authorities are assessing whether civilian manufacturers are able to quickly switch to defense orders.
US defense stocks - depleted
WSJ writes that the reason for the retooling of auto giants was the depletion of weapons stocks due to prolonged conflicts, in particular the war in Ukraine and aggravation in the Middle East. The Pentagon believes that traditional defense contractors may not be enough to ramp up production quickly.
Industrial and aerospace companies, particularly GE Aerospace and Oshkosh Corporation, have also been brought into the discussions.
The U.S. Defense Department stresses that the goal of the plan is to rapidly expand the defense industrial base and provide an advantage to the U.S. military.
The initiative is already being compared to World War II-era practices when auto companies moved en masse to produce military equipment.
It is expected that the new US defense budget, which could reach $1.5 trillion, will include significant investments in the production of munitions and drones.
Rethinking Defense in the US and EU
It should be noted that the US may be rethinking its own defense strategy - Secretary of State Marco Rubio said recently that Washington may rethink its participation in NATO.
This statement was later picked up and repeated by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. The U.S. hesitation to stay in the Alliance is due to the fact that the allies refused to help the Donald Trump administration in the Middle East.
Europe, in turn, is also considering its own defense plan without U.S. participation in NATO - the EU is talking about creating its own defense bloc or changing the rules in the existing Alliance.