US defense spending would rise $445bn under Trump budget plan, with steep cuts elsewhere

Defense spending would surge to its highest level in decades under a budget proposal put forward by the Trump administration on Friday, while other government programs would face cuts totaling 10%.

The document prepared by the White House office of management and budget (OMB) is a starting point for negotiations that will probably occupy Congress’s appropriators in the coming months, and are unlikely to be enacted in full.

But it nonetheless serves as a signal of Donald Trump’s priorities, with the US military embroiled in a conflict with Iran that has spread across the Middle East, as his Republican allies looking to defend majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Under the proposal for the 2027 fiscal year beginning on 1 October, defense spending would rise by 42% to $1.5tn, $445bn higher than its level in 2026. The funds would go towards programs intended to ensure “the United States maintains the world’s most powerful and capable military”, including expanding the defense manufacturing industrial base and funding the Golden Dome, a proposed space-based weapons system to intercept strikes against the United States.

However, the document doesn’t mention money for the war with Iran, which congressional Republicans are expected to fund using budget reconciliation legislation that can pass without Democratic votes.

The document proposes slashing non-defense spending by 10%, or $73bn, through “reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs”, and also transferring responsibility for some services to state and local governments.

Among the envisioned cuts are the defunding of the National Endowment for Democracy, and spending reductions at the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Nasa, whose astronauts are currently heading towards the moon on the Artemis II mission, is in for a 23% decrease in funding.

Democrats blasted the budget, with the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying his party “will make sure it never passes”.

Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, said the draft offered a “bleak and unacceptable” view of the country’s priorities.

“President Trump wants to slash medical research to fund costly foreign wars. It doesn’t get more backward than that, and the only responsible thing to do with a budget this morally bankrupt is to toss it in the trash,” Murray said in a statement.

With Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flush with cash provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Republicans passed last year, the agency’s funding would be flat compared to the prior fiscal year. However, Congress remains deadlocked over appropriations for ICE and the entire Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shut down since mid-February.

The proposal does include nearly $1.5bn in funding for the military to use its equipment and personnel to patrol the US-Mexico border, and another $216m for national guard deployments “to respond to incidents requiring defense support of civil authorities” – a sign that the administration wants to preserve its ability to dispatch troops to cities at will. Also included is $605m for the ongoing national guard deployment to Washington DC.

Additional funding would go towards ship building, both for the military as well as a vessel for the National Science Foundation and a new ferry for the National Park Service. The service oversees much of the land in Washington DC, and would receive $10bn to spruce up those properties, though it is unclear if any of that money would pay for construction projects Trump is proposing for the area, including a massive arch across the Potomac River.

Amid concerns about overworked air traffic controllers following a series of recent accidents, the Federal Aviation Administration would receive $4bn towards facilities and equipment, and a further $481m to continue hiring new air traffic controllers.

The proposal would affect only the third of the federal budget covering discretionary spending on the government’s vast array of services and programs. The rest of the budget – about two-thirds – goes towards mandatory spending including social security, Medicare and Medicaid, all of which are operated year on year without needing Congress’s approval.

It also offers no immediate solution to the burgeoning US budget deficit and national debt. The deficit stood at $1.78tn as of the the 2025 fiscal year, and the national debt at just over $39tn.

The spending has creeped upwards in recent decades, and shot higher during Trump’s first term and Joe Biden’s presidency as their administrations enacted expensive legislation to offset the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump tasked Elon Musk with dramatically lowering federal spending through the so-called “department of government efficiency,” but the initiative appears to have failed. In the fiscal year that concluded at the end of last September, federal spending rose by about 4%, or $301bn.