After passing through both the House and Senate, President Trump of Tuesday signed the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which will see the US military spend $692 billion over the next year, plus any other emergency funding authorized beyond that.

The NDAA is far in excess to the level sought by President Trump originally. Trump sought a larger than usual spending increase, but hawks in both the House and Senate condemned it for being not big enough, then began tit-for-tat increases.

Trump presented the massive increase as in keeping with his campaign pledge to build up the already enormous US military, saying Congress also needs to end the sequester, even though the sequester has never actually been complied with a any rate.

Trump said the spending increase means a bunch of “brand new beautiful equipment” will be bought, and that it will be way better than anything the US military already has “by far.”In the signing statement, Trump suggested several NDAA provisions were objectionable given his own estimation of his power, and that he intended to ignore those provisions.