Overview
- President Trump’s team on Friday submitted its fiscal 2027 budget asking about $1.5 trillion for defense, a roughly 40% jump that would be the largest one-year increase since World War II.
- The request uses a two-track approach with about $1.1 trillion through regular appropriations and $350 billion through reconciliation, a process that lets a simple Senate majority sidestep a filibuster.
- The White House pairs the surge with about $73 billion in cuts to non-defense programs, trimming funding for housing, health care, climate initiatives and other domestic grants it labels wasteful.
- Defense priorities include replenishing munitions, expanded shipbuilding, more F-35 jets, additional Virginia-class submarines and work on the “Golden Dome” missile-defense program, plus tiered military pay raises of 7%, 6% and 5% by rank.
- The proposal now heads to Congress as Republican defense hawks praise the increase and Democrats vow to oppose the domestic cuts and the reconciliation push, with detailed Pentagon numbers expected later this month.