President Trump Signs Trio of Executive Orders to Overhaul Military Procurement and Restore Maritime Strength
In a decisive move to reshape America’s defense capabilities, President Donald Trump signed three landmark executive orders on Wednesday, April 9, aimed at modernizing military procurement, restoring maritime dominance, and reforming foreign arms sales. The action marks a cornerstone of Trump’s second-term agenda to bolster national defense, economic strength, and strategic global influence.
Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance
The first executive order, titled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” underscores a sweeping effort to rebuild U.S. naval infrastructure and reinvigorate domestic shipbuilding. With a renewed focus on shipyard expansion, naval modernization, and enhancing the Merchant Marine’s readiness, the order represents a direct challenge to the global rise of Chinese maritime power.
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf explained the initiative during the Oval Office signing:
“Restoring maritime dominance has been a priority of this administration… This order contains significant steps to ensure we have the shipbuilding capacity to compete both militarily and commercially.”
President Trump echoed that sentiment, calling the current procurement process “horrible,” and vowing to replace it with “the best” systems:
“They get the highest price, and it’s not even good-looking equipment… We’re going to change it. This is very, very important.”
Modernizing Military Procurement
The second executive order tackles a long-standing frustration within the Department of Defense: sluggish procurement pipelines that fail to adapt to technological innovation. The new directive streamlines how the Pentagon acquires weapons systems, with a top-down review of existing programs to ensure value, speed, and relevance in a fast-evolving global theater.
Scharf emphasized the bipartisan criticism of current inefficiencies:
“We are going to be launching a review of our existing procurement programs to ensure we’re getting value and delivering the best possible systems in the field.”
President Trump, who oversaw a massive military rebuild during his first term, said the next phase is about refining and upgrading:
“We rebuilt our military entirely during my first term, but we have to fix it up a little bit more… and that’s what we are going to do.”
Reforming Foreign Defense Sales
The third and final executive order, “Reforming Foreign Defense Sales,” seeks to enhance America’s ability to support its allies through faster, more effective weapons exports. Under the directive, the Departments of Defense and State are ordered to overhaul the foreign military sales (FMS) process, cutting red tape while increasing reliability and boosting domestic defense industry revenues.
“We are unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies… This will rework the entire system to better serve both our allies and American jobs,” Scharf stated.
Trump reinforced that these reforms align with the broader vision of using defense spending to reinforce the economy and strategic alliances:
“We want to spend the money properly, and get the best equipment in the world. This will help our allies and our manufacturers.”
A $1 Trillion Commitment to National Defense
These executive actions arrive as President Trump champions a proposed $1 trillion defense budget, aimed at fortifying the homeland and extending American military superiority. With these reforms, the administration signals a renewed commitment to spending smarter, faster, and more strategically than ever before.
In a world increasingly defined by emerging threats and multipolar challenges, Trump’s orders mark a return to a doctrine of strength through readiness—backed by real-world reforms rather than Beltway bureaucracy.
America, he says, is once again ready to lead from the front.