The D Brief: Budget ‘gimmicks’; Drones down fighter jets; China’s counter-drone efforts; Army’s network experiment; And a bit more.

White House’s ‘trillion-dollar’ defense budget: The Trump administration’s $1.01 trillion defense-spending proposal for fiscal 2026 wouldn’t increase the Defense Department budget, and would lead to an inevitable decrease in defense spending the following year, budgetary experts said. Here’s why. According to documents posted to the White House website on Friday, the administration wants $892.6 billion for the base defense budget, which includes funds for