Dear Reader,
Good morning!
I wanted to take a break from talking about tariffs today to circle back and update you on what’s happening in the defense sector.
Because if you are not invested in this sector right now, let me tell you something – you are missing out on a massive mega trend.
First of all, a few things have happened in the past few weeks.
First, the Trump administration proposed a $1 trillion defense budget.
That’s $120 billion bigger than last year’s budget – it’s massive. The biggest defense budget increase in history.
We’re hearing about China tariffs and stuff on one side, but let’s split-screen that for a second –
Put yourself in President Trump’s shoes…
You’re hearing from people like Admiral Sam Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
He went to Congress and warned lawmakers that China’s aggressive maneuvers around Taiwan are, “not just exercises – they are dress rehearsals for forced unification.”
So listen, this is all being ramped up.
As this trade war is happening and China keeps doing this kind of stuff and they’re both playing off of each other.
The U.S. slaps bigger tariffs on China…
Almost incentivizing China to say, “we’ve got nothing to lose at this point.”
So there’s a lot of interplay happening here.
But one thing is certain – God-willing, nobody wants war.
That would be such a disaster.
There would be no winners. Just survivors. One side doing less bad than the other side.
It would change the world economy.
It wouldn’t be the first time this happened – we have a playbook for that, too.
More importantly, for those who haven’t invested in the defense sector yet, consider this:
First of all, America’s going up to a $1 trillion defense budget.
And Germany just passed its own trillion-dollar defense budget.
Europe is re-arming.
We talked about this in our Iron Dome webinar.
We listed a bunch of great European defense stocks and they’ve been going higher.
It’s a mega wave for these European companies.
Europe is reindustrializing.
They have every reason to do it.
It will strengthen the German economy.
Their military has been the equivalent of Boy Scouts. So it’s about time they rearmed.
For better and for worse, they are bringing industrial policy in – drones, etc.
A bunch of the companies we’ve recommended have picked up contracts.
AeroVironment (SYM: AVAV), for one, just got a $50 million drone contract from the Italian Ministry of Defense.
We can see that even where Trump is pulling back support for Ukraine, it’s incentivizing European countries to go out and buy a lot of the equipment they need to fill gaps in their own defense structure.
They’re buying from American companies. We’re not subsidizing it anymore, but those contracts aren’t just going to go away.
Europeans have a serious gap in their defense architecture, specifically around targeting satellite infrastructure.
So they’re going to our defense companies, buying drones, satellites, targeting, ramping up until they can fill their own gap.
But while they’re doing that, it’s propping up American companies.
And Trump’s historic $1 trillion defense budget is going to be a boom for American defense companies. Especially those working on the “Iron Dome.”
Between Europe and America ramping up defense spending to historic levels, going all-in on small, cutting-edge defense firms, the opportunity for investors is quite astonishing.
“The Buck Stops Here,”
P.S. Today is Global “Pay It Forward” Day.
What a beautiful thing.
I try to pay it forward every chance I get because Lord knows so many people have helped me out in so many ways. I am grateful!
Pay it forward is also something I try to instill in my kids.
I hope you get a chance today to pay it forward.
