President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request calls for a 42% increase in the defense budget, putting total military spending at $1.5 trillion — an immense, record-breaking sum that the White House is pairing with a slew of cuts to nondefense programs it cast as “woke, weaponized, and wasteful.”
The $445 billion increase from last year’s request allows for the “reinvesting in the foundations of American military power … ensuring the United States maintains the world’s most powerful and capable military by continuing to invest in innovative programs such as the Golden Dome for America,” the budget reads.
Last year’s budget request, touted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the “first TRILLION dollar” budget, broke records at the time and he pledged to spend “every taxpayer dollar wisely.” The Pentagon has failed every audit it has faced since 2018, and is estimated to continue failing audits through 2028.
The president is asking Congress to fund the Department of Defense to the tune of $1.1 trillion via typical budgetary means, while requesting Republicans add $350 billion through the reconciliation process, effectively cutting out Democrats from having a say in the massive military funding increase.
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“This strategy of decoupling funding for Republican priorities from Democrat waste and use of executive fiscal tools has proven to be a success, and we continue to deploy it in this year’s Budget,” the request reads.
There is no mention of the war in Iran in the documents; the Pentagon had previously asked Congress and the White House for $200 billion in funding for efforts related to the conflict.
The president is also asking for a $4.7 billion increase to the Department of Justice’s budget, while calling for the elimination of roughly 30 DOJ programs, some of which Trump is accusing of being “weaponized against the American people.”
To help pay for his proposed increase in military spending, Trump is proposing a slew of cuts totaling $73 billion, a 10% reduction in non-defense spending.
The president is calling for the elimination of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, the Minority Business Development Agency, Minority-Serving
Institutions programs, along with further cuts to a number of programs described in the budget documents as “woke” and “funding for cultural Marxism.”
The budget would also eliminate $15 billion in grants supporting environmental programs, among them renewable energy ventures and efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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