Trump budget zeroes out funding for Stars and Stripes, the military’s newspaper

The Trump administration pulled funding in its 2021 budget for Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military news organization that has published a daily newspaper continuously since World War II for troops stationed around the world.

At a Thursday press conference in Belgium, Defense Secretary Mark Esper explained the rationale behind the decision to withhold approximately $15.5 million in funding for Stars and Stripes.

“So, we trimmed the support for Stars and Stripes because we need to invest that money, as we did with many, many other programs, into higher-priority issues,” Esper said.