White House asks for $1.5 trillion for defense in new budget proposal

WASHINGTON — With the United States at war with Iran and embroiled in conflicts around the world, the White House announced on Friday (3) that it will ask Congress to approve about $1.5 trillion for defense in fiscal 2027. If approved, that amount would put military spending at its highest level in modern history.

The request, presented Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s new budget, would represent a roughly 40% increase over what the United States has spent on the Pentagon this fiscal year. The administration said the proposed increase would be accompanied by a request for $73 billion in cuts to several government agencies, including the elimination of some climate, housing and education programs.

As of Friday morning, the White House had released only a summary of its budget proposal, which covers the period beginning Oct. 1, with fuller details expected later. Taken together, the ideas make up a fiscal plan that could add trillions of dollars to the already sprawling federal debt over the next decade if lawmakers sign the president’s full vision into law without other changes to federal spending.

Trump urged Congress to approve the bulk of the new defense funding, more than $1.1 trillion, as part of its work to fund the government, and to enact the remaining $350 billion using the same legislative tactics that allowed Republicans to secure their tax cuts last year. He also called on lawmakers to increase federal funding to assist with border security and mass deportations.

In the days leading up to the release of initial details of his plan, the president and his aides presented the proposed defense increase in urgent terms, citing the need to replenish munitions and other supplies as the war with Iran continues. At one point during a private lunch, Trump indicated that military spending needed to be a national priority, even if that meant cutting federal welfare programs and other government aid, although his budget is not expected to include Medicare and Medicaid.

Trump also called on lawmakers to increase defense funding. “It’s not possible for us to take care of child care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things individually,” he said. “They can handle this at the state level.” He added that the focus had to be on “military protection”.

But Democrats and Republicans have recently expressed shared concern about increasing military spending in the measure suggested by Trump, fearing that the administration has not kept them informed about the progress of the five-week-old war with Iran.

Lawmakers also have not always reacted favorably to some of the president’s proposed cuts to agencies and programs that serve American families and businesses. A few months ago, Democrats and Republicans approved spending packages for the current fiscal year that rejected most of the reductions that Trump had endorsed in his 2026 proposal.

For the next fiscal year, the White House appeared to back away from some of these more drastic changes. But he still called on Congress to cut domestic spending by about 10%, hitting a wide range of once-essential government services, some of which have historically enjoyed bipartisan support.

Some of the proposed cuts would target programs that serve minority groups and their communities, under the presumption that the spending — intended to expand access to loans, strengthen minority-owned businesses, and combat housing discrimination — is “progressive,” “instrumentalized,” or facilitates “cultural Marxism.”

The Trump administration also proposed cutting some funding for teacher training, claiming the money helped “indoctrinate” them. And the White House has asked Congress to cancel about $15 billion in clean energy and other green funds adopted as part of the 2021 infrastructure law, including funding for renewable energy and electric vehicle chargers.

The administration signaled it would reserve its most significant raises for law enforcement, including more than $40 billion for the Justice Department, a 13% increase.

However, the president’s plan does not have the force of law; Only lawmakers have the authority, under the Constitution, to set the nation’s spending levels. But Trump has at times upset that balance by claiming to have vast powers to control the country’s finances and execute his budgetary vision, even without the express approval of Congress.

During the first year of his second term, the president closed agencies and programs he didn’t like; fired thousands of federal employees across the bureaucracy; and suspended billions in congressionally approved funding for health care, education, foreign aid, public broadcasting and more. The actions often generated widespread political condemnation and hundreds of legal challenges, many of which were not resolved in the president’s favor.

The roughly $1.5 trillion requested for the Pentagon would represent roughly 4.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of its economic output, according to Jessica Riedl, a budget and taxation researcher at the Brookings Institution. According to their analysis, after adjusting for inflation, this would be the largest annual increase for defense since the Korean War.

The request comes less than a year after Trump secured about $150 billion in extra funding for the Pentagon as part of Republicans’ sweeping package of tax cuts. The administration has been rushing to release these funds in recent months as it seeks additional resources to help finance the war with Iran.

Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit reduction, said the president’s proposed increases could worsen the federal debt, currently at nearly $39 trillion.

Without other substantial changes to federal spending and tax collection, another half trillion dollars in new military spending could total between $5 and $6 trillion, reducing that imbalance over the next decade, according to his analysis done before the budget release, after accounting for interest on what the government already owes.