<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has claimed he plans to crack down on executive compensation and shareholder payouts at military defense contractors, as his administration ramps up spending on the armed forces.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media, the US president said defense giants had been failing to swiftly deliver \u201cvital\u201d equipment to the US military<\/a> and its allies across the world.<\/p>\n The firms are paying \u201cexorbitant\u201d salaries to their top executives and vast dividends to shareholders while equipment is \u201cNOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH\u201d, Trump said.<\/p>\n He said he would \u201cnot permit\u201d dividends and stock buybacks by defense companies, or allow them to pay executives more than $5m, until they started to accelerate deliveries and build new and modern production plants.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s intervention came days after US forces struck Venezuela and captured its president<\/a>, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The Trump administration has also said it is examining \u201ca range of options\u201d to acquire Greenland<\/a>, and noted that using the US military to do so is \u201calways an option\u201d.<\/p>\n On Truth Social, Trump wrote: \u201cAll United State Defense Contractors, and the Defense Industry as a whole, BEWARE: While we make the best Military Equipment in the World (No other Country is even close!), Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment. This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!<\/p>\n \u201cExecutive Pay Packages in the Defense Industry are exorbitant and unjustifiable given how slowly these Companies are delivering vital Equipment to our Military, and our Allies,\u201d he added. \u201cSalaries, Stock Options, and every other form of Compensation are far too high for these Executives.\u201d<\/p>\n In fiscal year 2024, the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics<\/a> received more than $23.7m<\/a> each in total compensation, the RTX CEO received more than $18m<\/a>, and the Northrop Grumman CEO received over $24.3m<\/a>.<\/p>\n General Dynamics declined to comment. Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n