The passage of a nearly one-trillion-dollar National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by the House of Representatives exposes the persistent grip of the entrenched Washington establishment, even as America First conservatives wage a valiant fight to prioritize the nation’s security and fiscal sanity over globalist boondoggles. While Speaker Mike Johnson rightly touted conservative victories within the bill—such as eliminating divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, providing a well-deserved pay raise for troops, and cracking down on bureaucratic waste—the final product remains a classic swamp creature, bloated with liberal provisions and foreign aid that directly contradict the mandate given to President Donald Trump.
The fundamental betrayal at the heart of this bill is its continuation of funding for the endless war in Ukraine. As Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) powerfully explained in his statement condemning the legislation, “There’s money in there for, of course, Ukraine, $800 million total… Somebody’s, America’s got to start paying attention. And the Ukraine stuff’s not even, Trump didn’t even ask for that. You’ve got the war pimps that push for this stuff.” This $800 million allocation is a direct subsidy to the military-industrial complex and the foreign policy blob that President Trump has tirelessly fought against. It represents money stolen from American taxpayers to fund a conflict with no clear strategic objective for the United States, all while our own border remains in crisis and our national debt skyrockets. Burchett’s critique that the bill’s defenders justify it by saying “they’re gonna spend all that money here buying those missiles” highlights the morbid economics of a system that profits from perpetual conflict rather than peace through strength.
Furthermore, the rushed and opaque process used to pass this monstrosity is an insult to the American people and the principles of transparent governance. Representative Burchett highlighted this disgrace, stating, “it’s over 3000 pages. We get it on Sunday, and we’re voting on it today. There’s no way, no way, we will ever know what was in there.” This is how the swamp operates: by crafting incomprehensibly large bills filled with pork and poison pills, then forcing a vote before anyone can read them. The fact that over 100 Democrats voted for this package, as Burchett noted, “ought to tell you right there what this is about,” proving it is laden with liberal priorities disguised as defense spending. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) confirmed these concerns, stating the bill “funds DEI madness, is weak on border security, and is a gift to foreign countries that hate us,” and forces female service members “to compete against (and shower with) biological men pretending to be women.”
This NDAA fight underscores the critical battle within the Republican Party between the America-First patriots and the complacent career politicians who have made peace with the permanent bureaucracy. While the elimination of DEI is a significant win secured by conservative leadership, the preservation of Ukraine funding and radical social policies reveals the limits of compromise with a Democrat party and a media establishment that will never accept President Trump’s vision of a sovereign America.
I was proud to support the NDAA when it passed the House earlier this year, but I’m voting NO on the garbage bill on the floor today.
The House passed a strong bill. What’s coming back is a woke, pork-stuffed betrayal of our troops and our country. 🧵
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) December 10, 2025
The courageous “nay” votes from principled representatives like Burchett, Boebert, and others are a rallying cry for the base, signaling that the fight to align every dollar of spending with the interests of American citizens is far from over. It is a reminder that the mission to drain the swamp requires relentless pressure, as the establishment continually seeks to dilute President Trump’s agenda with business-as-usual spending and globalist commitments.