WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has proposed increasing defense spending to $1.5 trillion in his 2027 budget released Friday, the largest such request in decades, reflecting his emphasis on US military investment over domestic programs.
The significant increase for the Pentagon was telegraphed by the Republican president even before the beginning of the year The US-led war against Iran. The president’s plan would also reduce spending on non-defense programs by 10% by shifting some responsibilities to state and local governments.
“President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure to ensure our nation is safe in a dangerous world,” he wrote. Budget Director Russell Vought.
The president’s annual budget is considered a reflection of the administration’s values and does not have the force of law. The massive document usually outlines an administration’s priorities, but Congress, which handles federal spending matters, is free to reject it, and often does.
This year’s White House document aims to provide a roadmap from the president to Congress as lawmakers craft their budgets and annual appropriations bills to keep the government funded. Vought spoke to House GOP lawmakers in a private phone call Thursday.
Trump, speaking before a addressed to the nation this week on the Iran war, signaled that the military is his priority, setting up a showdown in Congress.
“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said at a private White House event on Wednesday.
“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare — all these individual things,” he said. “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal one.”
Money for immigration enforcement, air traffic controllers and national parks
Among the budget priorities, the White House called for:
— Supporting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and deportation operations by eliminating refugee resettlement assistance, maintaining Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding at current year levels, and building on last year’s increase in Department of Homeland Security funding to continue opening detention facilities, including 100,000 beds for families, 30 beds for adults.
– A 13% increase in funding for the Justice Department to focus on violent criminals and what the budget said is the president’s promise to stop what he calls immigrant crime.
– A $10 billion fund within the National Park Service for “build and beautify” projects in Washington, DC.
– A $481 million increase in funding to enhance aviation safety and support increased employment of air traffic controllers.
Cuts to green energy, housing and health programs
— Repeals more than $15 billion in the bipartisan Biden-era infrastructure law, including funding for renewable energy projects, and cuts funding for what the Trump administration calls “smart” environmental justice programs and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, climate change grants.
— A 19% cut to the Department of Agriculture, ending certain university grants, a 13% cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and about a 12% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services, including cuts to a low-income heating assistance program.
The White House is claiming cuts to programs that direct federal investments to low-income communities.
For example, the administration is looking to cut Community Services Block Grants, which fund activities such as financial and job counseling and helping people get affordable housing. The administration says its cuts would target “radically hijacked” grants to promote building equity and green energy initiatives.
The president also wants to cut $106 million in funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which he says has “pushed radical gender ideology on children.”
Supporters and opponents
The Republican chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees welcomed Trump’s request for defense spending, saying the money would ensure the nation’s military remains the most advanced in the world as it faces growing threats from China, Russia, Iran and others.
“America is facing the most dangerous global environment since World War II,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
The top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania said the president was seeking a massive defense boost while cutting billions from health care, housing and more.
“This budget represents ‘America Last,'” Boyle said.
Debt, deficits and tough choices ahead
With the nation on the run nearly $2 trillion in annual deficits and past due 39 trillion dollarsfederal balance sheets have long run in the red.
About two-thirds of the nation’s estimated $7 trillion in annual spending covers the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs, as well as Social Security revenues, which are basically increasing – along with an aging population – on autopilot.
The rest of the annual budget is typically split more evenly between defense and domestic accounts, nearly $1 trillion each, which is where most of debate in Congress develops.
The GOPs big tax cut bill that Trump signed into law last year increased its priorities beyond the budget process — by at least $150 billion for the Pentagon over the next several years and $170 billion for Trump’s immigration and deportation operations in the Department of Homeland Security.
The administration is counting on its allies in the Republican-led Congress to again push the president’s priorities, particularly Defense Department spending, through its budget process, as it was able to do last year.
It suggests that $1.1 trillion for defense would come through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires bipartisan support for approval, while $350 billion would go through the budget reconciliation process that Republicans can achieve on their own, through party-line majority votes.
Congress is still fighting over 2026 spending
The president’s budget arrives as the House and Senate remain deadlocked over current-year spending and blocked for DHS funding, with Democrats demanding changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement regime that Republicans are unwilling to accept.
Trump announced Thursday that he will sign an executive order to pay all DHS employees who have gone without paychecks this year partial record government shutdown which has reached 49 days.
Last year, in The president’s first budget since returning to the White HouseTrump sought to fulfill his promise to greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government, mirroring the billionaire’s efforts Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
However, while Trump had sought a roughly one-fifth cut in non-defense spending, Congress kept that spending relatively flat.
Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called Trump’s new budget morally bankrupt.
“Trump wants to build a ballroom — I want to build more affordable housing and only one of us is on the Appropriations Committee,” Murray said.
By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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