Not sure if certain people were not paying attention or don't remember but the
context is that Trump sent this tweet calling defense spending levels "crazy":
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069584730880974849
Keep in mind he's taking about a defense spending bill HE SIGNED.
Just a few days later...
Trump reverses course, tells Pentagon to boost budget request to $750 billion
That would dwarf the $733 billion budget proposal Mattis and other top military leaders have been fighting to preserve and would represent a stunning about-face for a president who recently called the fiscal 2019 top line of $716 billion for defense spending "crazy." In October, Trump said the defense figure for 2020 would be $700 billion
He signed
$716B the previous year and then called it
crazy, said he wanted to decrease it to
$700B in line with % cuts elsewhere... the military proposed
$733B... and Trump gave them
$750B...
Trump committed to a fiscal 2020 defense budget of at least $750 billion, a nearly 5 percent increase instead of a 2 percent cut.
And of course it passed easily, with hardly any opposition or even discussion.
Of course plenty of other agencies DID get their budgets cut significantly...
That increase was not based on any request for infrastructure or "5G rollout" or anything, it was Trump picking a random number out of thin air as a negotiating tactic, and then getting it when no one opposed:
Trump suggested the new $750 billion number during the Tuesday meeting as a "negotiating tactic" to ensure that Democratic opposition does not push the eventual defense budget below the $733 billion that Mattis, Inhofe and Thornberry were pursuing
...
"There was a discussion with POTUS about how to get $733 billion, and POTUS suggested that if the position is $733 billion, then we should submit a budget at $750 billion as a negotiating tactic," the second source said. "That said, the president changes his mind constantly."
Not sure how any of that is relevant here, but just thought I'd clear up the speculation...