For the first time, President Donald Trump is set to use his authority to send weapons directly to Ukraine from Pentagon reserves, Reuters reports, citing two sources familiar with the matter, after last week’s brief halt in shipments and now subsequent reversal.
Until now, the Trump administration had only transferred arms that were previously approved during Biden’s prior term. Trump is likely to use the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which enables the president to quickly provide military aid in ’emergencies’, despite long-running fears that America could lack for key military hardware if fighting its own wars against a major power, Reuters says. It remains that the US hasn’t fought a direct war with a ‘great power’ in quite some time, going back the WW2-era.
Trump on Tuesday indicated he would send more weapons to Ukraine amid intensifying Russian advances and aerial strikes, after the prior week saw hundreds of drones sent nightly.
“More than three years after Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, Trump’s team will identify arms from U.S. stockpiles to send to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the sources said, with one saying they could be worth around $300 million,” Reuters reports.
This is expected to include Patriot air defense missiles and medium-range rockets, which is somewhat surprising and alarming given the amount of Patriots the Pentagon has just blown through defending Israel, and mid Iranian attacks.
According to the Guardian, “The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.”
And as we noted earlier, US weapons manufacturers can only produce approximately 500 Patriot missiles per year. The US stockpile of air and missile defenses has been drained to aid Ukraine during the war with Russia. Missile interceptors are in short supply in the West.
Trump’s fresh (up to) $300 million infusion would reverse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to pause shipments while a more thorough review can be made, after he expressed wariness of expanding support to Ukraine.
He reportedly made that call without first consulting the president, and the White House earlier this week acted like it was surprised that the pause ever happened. On Wednesday the president was questioned by a reporter as follows:
“Yesterday, you said that you were not sure who ordered the munitions halted to Ukraine. Have you since been able to figure that out?” a reporter asked the president.
“Well, I haven’t thought about it, because we’re looking at Ukraine right now and munitions, but I have, no I have not gone into it,” he said.
The reporter followed up by asking, “What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without you knowing?”
“I would know if a decision was made, I will know,” Trump stressed. “I’ll be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”
Trump used to criticise Biden for sending weapons to Ukraine. Now, the Trump administration is making excuses for a brief halt to weapons supplies. "America First" is long gone pic.twitter.com/EYNiHOY94w
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) July 10, 2025
Such obfuscation could be the result of rising anger among Trump’s base concerning the policy U-turn. Trump voters have wondered how keeping up the flow of massive monetary and defense aid to Ukraine is ‘America first’.
Reprinted with permission from ZeroHedge.
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