Washington — President Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 asks Congress for $1.5 trillion in defense spending — a 42% increase — while cutting nondefense spending by $73 billion, or 10%.
The White House released the 92-page budget request on Friday, accompanied by several summaries of the administration’s key priorities across the executive branch.
The proposed increase for the military comes as the U.S. is spending billions of dollars for the war in Iran, and the White House is preparing to ask Congress for a supplemental spending package to cover the cost of the conflict. The president’s 2027 budget serves as the starting point for negotiations with Congress over annual spending bills that lawmakers aim to finalize later in the year. The spending levels that Congress ultimately sets can substantially differ from the president’s proposal.
“This amount exceeds even the [Ronald] Reagan buildup by approaching the historic increases just prior to World War II, a level that recognizes the current global threat environment and restores the readiness and lethality of our forces,” a White House summary of the military portion of the budget proposal states. The increase in defense spending would cover a 5 to 7% pay raise for troops, provide $65.8 billion for new ships and resupply critical munition stocks, which have been depleted in the war with Iran. It also supports the building of a “Golden Dome,” a space-based system of missile defense sensors and interceptors.
The White House says the president wants to pair the defense increase with a 10% reduction in nondefense spending, partly through shifting some federal programs and responsibilities to state and local governments.
“Savings are achieved by reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs, and by returning state and local responsibilities to their respective governments,” the White House summary says.
The budget aims to “end weaponization of the Department of Justice” by eliminating nearly 30 grants the administration says are duplicative, fail to reduce crime or “weaponized against the American people.” It proposes a $481 million increase to support hiring more air traffic controllers and enhancements to aviation safety, as well as $605 million for National Guard mobilizations in Washington, D.C.
The president’s proposal calls for $768 million in cuts to the refugee resettlement program, and $819 million in cuts to the Unaccompanied Alien Children program.
It also calls for $5 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health, saying NIH “broke the trust of the American people,” and $356 million in cuts to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which helps the U.S. prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.
While it boosts air traffic control and aviation safety spending, the president’s budget also calls for $52 million in cuts to the Transportation Security Administration by beginning to privatize screening at smaller airports.
The president voiced his desire to shift more spending to states during an Easter luncheon at the White House this week, insisting the federal government’s responsibilities include the military and war, not programs like daycare for young children.
“The United States can’t take care of daycare — that has to be up to a state,” the president said on Wednesday. “We can’t take care of daycare, we’re a big country. We have 50 states, we have all these other people, we’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You’ve got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes. But they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up for, but we, it’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all those individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing — military protection.”
