Trump Proposes Record USD 1.5 Trillion Defence Budget Amid War with Iran

The Pentagon’s sizeable increase of around 44 percent had been telegraphed by the Republican president even before the U.S.-led war against Iran. The president’s plan would also reduce spending on non-defense programs by 10%.

“President Trump has pledged to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure to keep our nation safe in a dangerous world,” Budget Director Russell Vought wrote.

The president’s annual budget is considered a reflection of the administration’s values ​​and does not have the force of law. This massive document often highlights an administration’s priorities, but Congress, which handles federal spending issues, is free to reject it, and often does.

This year’s White House document is intended to provide a roadmap from the president to Congress as lawmakers craft their own budgets and annual appropriations bills to fund the government. Vought spoke to GOP lawmakers in a private call Thursday.

Speaking before his address to the nation about the Iran war this week, Trump sparked a confrontation in Congress by pointing out that his priority was the military.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare,” Trump said at a special event at the White House on Wednesday.

“We can’t handle day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” he said. “They can do it on a state-by-state basis, you can’t do it federally.”

Money for immigration enforcement, air traffic controllers and national parks are among the White House’s requested priorities:

— Supporting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and deportation operations by eliminating aspects of the refugee resettlement assistance program, keeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding at current year levels, and leveraging last year’s increases in Department of Homeland Security funding to continue opening detention facilities, including 100,000 beds for adults and 30,000 beds for families.

— A 13% increase in funding for the Justice Department to focus on violent criminals and the president’s pledge to stop what the White House calls immigration crime.

— A $10 billion fund within the National Park Service for “construction and beautification” projects in Washington, D.C.

–$481 million increase in funding to improve aviation safety and support air traffic controller hiring expansion.

Cuts to green energy, housing and healthcare programs — More than $15 billion in cuts from the bipartisan Biden-era infrastructure bill were rescinded, including funding for renewable energy projects and cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, grants.

— A 19% cut at the Department of Agriculture, the end of some college scholarships, a 13% cut at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and a nearly 12% cut at the Health and Human Services department, including cuts to the low-income heating assistance program.

The White House is touting cuts to what it calls “stimulus programs” that often divert federal investments to low-income communities. Budget used the word “woke” 34 times

For example, the administration plans to cut Community Services Block Grants, which fund activities such as financial and job counseling and help people get adequate housing. The administration said the cuts would target grants “hijacked by extremists” to promote equity-building and green energy initiatives.

The president also aims to cut $106 million in funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which he says “pushes radical gender ideology on children.”

Supporters and opponents The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees applauded Trump’s request for defense spending and said 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.

R-Miss. “America faces the most dangerous global environment since World War II,” said Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said the president is demanding a massive increase in defense while cutting billions of dollars from health care, housing and more.

“This budget represents ‘The Last America,'” Boyle said.

Debt, deficits and tough choices ahead Federal balance sheets have long been in the red, with the nation running an annual deficit of nearly $2 trillion and debt topping $39 trillion.

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 growing on autopilot with an aging population.

Because Democrats have insisted for years that changes in the level of defense and nondefense spending must be fair, most of the debate in Congress takes place over the remainder of the annual budget.

The GOP’s massive tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year moved its priorities beyond the budget process; At least $150 billion over the next few years was for the Pentagon and $170 billion for immigration and deportation operations at Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.

The administration is relying on its allies in the Republican-led Congress to push some of the president’s increased defense spending through its own budget process, as it was able to do last year.

It is claimed that $1.1 trillion for defense will go through the regular appropriations process, which usually requires the support of both parties for approval, while $350 billion will go to the budget reconciliation process, which Republicans can achieve on their own with the votes of the party majority.

Congress still fighting over 2026 spending The president’s budget comes as the House and Senate remain tangled on current-year spending and deadlocked on DHS funding; Democrats are 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 remained unpaid during the record-long partial government shutdown that lasted 49 days.

Last year, in the president’s first budget after returning to the White House, Trump sought to make good on his promise to drastically reduce the size and scope of the federal government to mirror efforts by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

But Trump has called for a roughly one-fifth reduction in nondefense spending, while Congress has kept such spending relatively steady.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called Trump’s new budget “morally bankrupt.”

“Trump wants to build a ballroom,” Murray said, referring to the White House renovation. “I want to build more affordable housing, and only one of us is on the Appropriations Committee.”