For 2027, President Donald Trump is asking for a record military defense budget of $1.5 trillion as part of the White House’s proposed budget plan. If the budget passes, it would constitute the largest military budget in U.S. history. The proposal calls for a 44% increasing in spending, according to a 92-page document released Friday by the Office of Management and Budget.
“President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure, to make sure our Nation is safe in a dangerous world,” the document reads. “The 2027 Budget upholds this promise and would ensure that the United States continues to maintain the world’s most powerful and capable military.”
The budget will also continue to “constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government.” This includes cuts to more than $73 billion in domestic government programs across housing, education, health care and the environment.
Trump proposed the spending increase in January as a means to build a “dream military” that would “keep us safe and secure.” Recently, Trump has urged lawmakers to approve increases in defense spending, specifically in the ongoing Iran War. Trump said military spending supersedes domestic programs.
“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” Trump said during a Wednesday speech that was posted to YouTube and later deleted. “We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”
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The proposed budget met instant pushback from lawmakers. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the budget “fails to meet the needs of working Americans.”
“It’s just an out-of-touch plea for more money for guns and bombs, and less for the things people need, like housing, health care, education, roads, scientific research and environmental protection,” Merkley said in a statement to Salon.
Rep. Gabe Amo, D-R.I., said the budget shows that Trump values “trillions for wars of choice.”
“He doesn’t value your health care, housing or education,” Amo said in a post on X. “This budget’s dead on arrival.”
