WHAT WAS SAID

“We have ended the disastrous defense sequester. No money for the military, those days are over.”

THE FACTS

False.

Technically, Mr. Trump did not repeal the defense sequester, which refers to limits placed on military spending enacted in 2011. Congress effectively erased mandated caps in February, but that doesn’t mean that the military received “no money” at all before then.

In 2011, in response to a debt ceiling crisis, lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement to reduce deficits by at least $2.1 trillion over the next decade. In addition to limits on domestic spending, limits were placed on the Pentagon’s base budget, but not its wartime spending.

Congress increased spending caps by $32 billion in 2013 and $40 billion in 2015, referred to by budget watchers as “partial sequester relief.” In February, the cap was blown off entirely, when Mr. Trump signed a budget deal that raised it by $165 billion over two years. Effectively, that ended the sequester without repealing the original law.

From 2012 to 2017, the Pentagon’s annual budget had decreased as a percent of the economy. But it still hovered around $600 billion — a far cry from “no money” at all.