Trump wants to shut down vulnerable GOP senator's 'biggest accomplishment'

Donald Trump’s new budget proposed cutting funding for the A-10 fighter jet, a move that puts one of his most loyal supporters, Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), in a rough spot.

According to Defense News, Trump wants to begin retiring several older aircrafts, including B-1 bombers, A-10 Warthog attack planes, some surveillance drones, and others.

McSally has claimed that saving the A-10s from being retired was her “strongest and biggest accomplishment” in Congress. American Bridge, a progressive opposition research organization, created a video of several instances of McSally discussing the A-10 fighter jet.

In one, McSally claimed, “if the Obama administration had gotten their way, literally all A-10s would be mothballed right now. All of them.”

McSally, a Republican appointed to the Senate after losing her 2018 race, once piloted A-10s when she was in the Air Force, and A-10 fighter jets are housed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.

In a statement to News 4 Tucson on Wednesday, McSally vowed to stop the Trump administration from ruining her greatest accomplishment.

McSally said she “met with Air Force leaders to tell them point blank that I would not allow their plan to mothball 44 A-10s starting in October to happen.”

But McSally has a poor track record thus far when it comes to defending military spending in her home state. In 2019, McSally voted three separate times to allow the Trump administration to raid funds intended for the military to put toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Trump administration took $30 million allocated for Arizona’s Fort Huachuca, funding McSally previously said was “vital to national security.” She promised constituents that she would make sure the funding was restored.

“As we work through our Senate and House differences, that funding will be seamlessly provided,” McSally told Arizonans in a September 2019 telephone town hall.

Despite her promise, the $30 million was never restored in the subsequent congressional funding bill.

The Trump administration recently announced it would once again raid funds allocated to the military in order to build the border wall. Arizona’s NBC 12 News reported on Thursday that several military bases in the state are at risk of losing funding.

McSally has remained silent about Trump’s plan to raid additional funding from the military.

McSally is facing a tough election race in November, likely against former astronaut Mark Kelly. While the election is still months away, Kelly has led in recent polls and has been a more successful fundraiser than McSally.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.