Mr. Adams, the former Clinton administration budget official, said Mr. Shanahan might “find it darn difficult to turn the screws
and wrestle more efficiency out of the military services at the same time as the president is doling out a budget with more money.”
And friends say Mr. Shanahan, a divorced father of three with a dry sense of humor and a taste for golf, has never shown much interest in politics.
“I don’t envy Shanahan being in that position, with the president looking over his shoulder
like that,” said Gordon Adams, who oversaw military budgets in the Clinton White House.
Mr. Trump would like to increase the base military budget to $603 billion — $54 billion more than the current level
but only $18 billion higher than President Obama had suggested in his last budget.
