Defense companies adapt to Trump administration in first 100 days

The defense industry has lowered its expectations following promises on the campaign trail from President Donald Trump to drastically increase defense spending, said Defense One global business editor Marcus Weisgerber.

Bigger defense firms have adapted to the new president and with few changes their bottom lines as many of those companies announced first quarter earnings at the end of April.

“Overall, it’s a lot of the same. We’re hearing the exact same stuff that we heard all throughout the Obama administration,” he said.

“There’s still optimism that these [spending] caps are going to get lifted, and that more money will flow into defense. But you’re not hearing right now what you were hearing when Trump was elected,” Weisgerber said.

Despite tweets from Trump slamming defense companies such as Boeing, the companies still working closely with the White House in much the same way they used to, Weisgerber told What’s Working in Washington.

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“Boeing was the victim of his tweets, and guess what? [Boeing’s president] is regularly talking to Trump now, and people at Boeing tell me that they do routinely talk on the phone,” he said. “Trump’s first visit to a manufacturing facility was, indeed, Boeing in South Carolina.”

The Trump administration is also staying the course on finding innovation. For the last eight years, the Obama administration looked to Silicon Valley for new ideas, and the current White House is doing the same.

“So far, we keep hearing a lot of the same themes… you’re hearing a lot about their Silicon Valley office, the DIUx office that the Pentagon set up right next to Moffett Field,” said Weisgerber.

The best way to predict trends in defense entrepreneurship is to “listen to what the military leaders want. That has nothing to do with politics, and who’s in office,” Weisgerber said. According to these military leaders, he said, cybersecurity, robotics, and fighting technology are important.

“Despite a new administration, all those priorities are all still very much there for the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who are out there,” he said.

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