The Huffington Post reports:
After persistent questioning about the cost of sending National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles, Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who said it would cost $134 million.
Hegseth defended Trump’s decision to send the troops, saying they are needed to protect federal agents as they do their jobs.
The House Defense Appropriations subcommittee hearing was the first time lawmakers have been able to challenge Trump’s defense chief since he was confirmed. And it is the first of three congressional hearings he will face this week.
Read the full article. Now we know why Hegseth refused to answer questions from McCollum at the start of the hearing.
Pete Aguilar: Why did you send the Guard w/o resources.
Whiskey @PeteHegseth: blah blah blah disingenuous disingenuous disingenuous.
Bryn McDonnell: $134M for the deployment to LA. (That may cover just the Guard.)
— emptywheel (check) (@emptywheel) June 10, 2025
Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles will cost $134 million, according to the interim defense department comptroller Bryn MacDonnell
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 10, 2025
It’s going to cost $134 MILLION for National Guard troops to be here in LA for the next 60 days. That’s a lot of $$$ spent for them to sleep on concrete floors & stand outside Federal buildings (which LAPD could do on its own) while the GOP wants to gut Medicaid and VA benefits pic.twitter.com/mPjkhh4w3e
— Dan Przygoda (@dprzygoda) June 10, 2025