Trump Budget Pits Spending Cuts Against Massive Defense Push

Article content

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump will ask Congress to enact a massive increase in defense spending in a discretionary budget proposal Friday, while also renewing his push for steep cuts to domestic programs.

Article content

The budget requests $1.5 trillion for defense, a significant increase over the $1 trillion sought for fiscal year 2026. The new figure includes $1.1 trillion in base discretionary spending for the Department of Defense and another $350 billion in mandatory spending as the US carries out its war on Iran.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Discretionary nondefense spending would be cut 10%, or about $73 billion, according to fact sheets circulated by the White House in advance of the annual budget release Friday.

Article content

Article content

The president’s decision to seek a dramatic rise in the Pentagon’s budget — the largest single-year increase since World War II — comes as polls indicate he’s struggling to convince many Americans of the wisdom of the war in Iran.

Article content

The proposal also puts his Capitol Hill allies on the spot, after lawmakers failed to enact the full scope of reductions he sought in his first year back in office, and amid some voter backlash to his slash-and-burn efforts to trim the bureaucracy. Taken as a whole, the budget sets up a fierce debate over policies and priorities ahead of November’s critical midterm elections.

Article content

The budget serves as an important guidepost for upcoming funding battles and offers investors insight into how the White House is thinking about the nation’s economic future. While Republican lawmakers are not expected to pursue many of the cuts outlined in the document, a defense boost is more likely. 

Article content

Article content

The White House summaries of its budget submission contained few details of Trump’s spending plan. They include $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, a 13% increase for the Department of Justice, and $10 billion for beautification projects in the nation’s capital.

Article content

The budget would also continue Trump’s attempts to dismantle much of his predecessor’s environmental agenda, canceling $15 billion in renewable energy and clean air programs — and redirecting much of it to building fossil fuel infrastructure and energy-hungry artificial intelligence supercomputers for the Department of Energy.

Article content

Also proposed for cuts are programs historically aimed at serving poor and minority communities, including Community Services Block Grants, the Minority Business Development Agency and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Article content

In a departure from decades of practice, the budget is not expected to include 10-year projections for the spending plan’s impact on future deficits, leaving those to an obscure release later in the year.

Article content

Trump has also been touting an effort to crack down on fraud in federal programs, an initiative led by Vice President JD Vance, claiming it will help recover funds.

Article content

“The numbers are so large that, if successful, we would literally be able to balance our American Budget,” Trump said in a Friday post on his social networking site. “Good Luck JD!”

Article content

Improper payments identified by federal agencies in 2025 — a rough proxy for fraudulent activity — totaled $186 billion. That’s about one-tenth of the $1.8 trillion budget deficit that same year. 

Article content

—With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Justin Sink.

Article content

(Updates with details beginning in seventh paragraph)

Article content