President Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal calls for eye-popping cuts of $163 billion, but senior Senate Republicans have quickly raised objections that the blueprint would reduce defense spending.
The budget proposal, released Friday, includes some of the most significant cuts requested by a president in modern U.S. history. It calls for steep cuts to hundreds of programs at federal agencies that the administration said are promoting woke gender and racial ideologies that “poison the minds of Americans.”
The administration has proposed a record $1 trillion increase in defense spending, including $175 billion to secure the U.S. border. Under current spending levels, the U.S. spends $892.3 billion on national security.
Senate Republicans accused the White House of fudging numbers. They argued that most of the defense spending increase would go to initiatives outside the Defense Department’s purview, such as the Energy Department’s work on nuclear weapons and the Homeland Security Department’s efforts to bolster border enforcement.
The Pentagon-only request is for $961 billion, compared with the $876.8 billion approved in January for the current fiscal year under the Biden administration.
“OMB is not requesting a trillion-dollar budget. It is requesting a budget of $892 billion, which is a cut in real terms. This budget would decrease President Trump’s military options and his negotiating leverage,” said Sen. Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi Republican and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said Mr. Trump’s budget doubles down “on the Biden administration’s material neglect for the glaring national security threats.”
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told reporters that the budget request is for a “very, very healthy” 13% increase in defense.
“We want to make sure that it is going towards capabilities that DOD needs, says it wants, says are vital. And we are changing the way that this place works, and we’re happy to continue to explain that to the Hill. And I’m not surprised that we’ll have some work to do on that front,” he said.
The proposal will fund the Golden Dome missile defense project, shipbuilding, modernization of other U.S. nuclear weapon systems, and a 3.8% pay raise for service members. Administration officials said it is one of the largest requests for increased defense spending since the Reagan administration.
On the nondefense side, the Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department, Interior Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Institutes of Health, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could face deep cuts.
Mr. Trump has proposed nearly $40 billion in cuts to the State Department for programs that do not align with the administration’s priorities. An $18 billion reduction has been proposed for the National Institutes of Health from fiscal year 2025 levels. The plan also calls for an $8 billion cut for the Labor Department and a $25 billion reduction for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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All told, Mr. Trump proposed $557 billion in nondefense spending. That would amount to a 22% reduction in discretionary spending from the federal government’s current spending levels. The federal budget has risen to roughly $7 trillion annually, with deficits approaching $2 trillion.
Nondefense discretionary spending represents the federal money that must be reauthorized each year, including education, transportation and public health. It does not include Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.
In a letter to Congress accompanying the budget blueprint, Mr. Vought said the proposed cuts result from a “rigorous, line-by-line review” of fiscal year 2025 spending. The fiscal 2026 budget year begins Oct. 1.
Mr. Vought wrote that the current budget is “laden with the spending contrary to the needs of ordinary working Americans and tilted toward funding the niche non-governmental organizations and institutions of higher education committed to radical genders and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life.”
Mr. Vought told reporters that funding for homeland security, veterans, seniors, law enforcement and infrastructure would be protected.
Presidential budget requests are typically considered an administration’s wish list, laying out top-line funding requests, but aren’t as comprehensive as a full budget. Mr. Trump will send the budget outline to Capitol Hill, where both parties are expected to debate his requests.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said Mr. Trump proposed cuts in the right places.
“Our country cannot continue to bear the hard consequences of years of runaway spending under Democratic leadership, and this budget makes clear that fiscal discipline is nonnegotiable. President Trump’s plan ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects,” he said.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Mr. Trump “wants to outright defund programs that help working Americans while he shovels massive tax breaks at billionaires like himself and raises taxes on middle-class Americans with his reckless tariffs.”
“This preliminary budget proposal is exceptionally light on details we desperately need, but this much is clear: Trump wants to eviscerate programs that matter most to working families,” she said.
Mr. Trump indicated earlier this year that the defense spending increase would come from savings realized through cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency, the administration’s cost-savings advisory agency. Since its creation in January, DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has dismantled federal agencies, slashed programs and fired government workers.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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