US President Donald Trump signed the annual US defense authorization into law on Monday, a step toward shifting the Pentagon’s focus away from the decadeslong Middle East war on terrorism to great power conflicts against China and Russia.
As Trump put his signature on the $716 billion legislation, named after intraparty rival John McCain, that puts the United States on a long course to build a 355-ship Navy and significantly cuts the post-9/11 warfighting fund, the new law faces a bureaucratic fight within the Defense Department as the massive agency tries to determine how to rebalance its forces.