Dear Editor:

To defend our country from “the enemy within” (unarmed, predominantly older white women), the $475,000,000 cost of National Guard and ICE deployment in Democratically-led cities hardly yields the benefits it purports to deliver. (One unstated benefit, though: The chaos and violence incited by ICE agents will provide a pretext for President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and pit active-duty soldiers and Marines against American civilians.)

So, half-a-billion dollars spent to assault, imprison, and deport “the worst of the worst,” hard- working immigrants along with their families … and Operation Tidal Wave is just gearing up. Stephen Miller’s abduction quota of 3,000 people a day is going to cost us taxpayers a whole lot more in the coming years.

And that’s just chump change for our multi-billionaire president and his trillionaire wingman, Elon Musk. Having devoted 130 days of his valuable time to eliminating waste within the ‘deep state,’ Musk and his DOGE have eviscerated many federal programs and every executive department except one: Defense.

No waste there? Include military operations without congressional approval, and you’re talking real money — enough to justify Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department in fiscal year 2027.

Our “peace president” has already ordered 626 air strikes, and the pace is quickening as deadlines for releasing the Epstein files come and go. Big-ticket items, with little to show for them, include our Caribbean armada ($600 million, at $18 million per day); our partially- effective bombing of Iran ($200 million, including seven B-2 bombers at $150,000 per flight- hour each); the abduction of President Nicholas Maduro, while leaving his government in power (tens of millions of dollars); and other special military operations in Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, and the one Pete Hegseth posted in a Signal chat room — Yemen.

My two favorite Defense Department expense items, though, are the $150 million it is costing us to change its name to the ‘Department of War’ and the $10 million that was spent gathering top military officers from around to globe to watch Pete Hegseth’s TED Talk on physical fitness.

Where is Elon’s jewel-encrusted chainsaw when we need it the most?

Bill Hammond

Boothbay