President Donald Trump has proposed boosting defence spending to $1.5 trillion in his fiscal 2027 budget released on Friday, the largest such request in decades, reflecting his emphasis on military investment over domestic programs.
The request is structured as a $1.15 trillion base budget for the Department of Defence (DoD), with an additional $350 billion to be pursued through Congress’s budget reconciliation process, which Republicans can advance through party-line majority votes without Democratic support. If passed, the base budget alone would mark the first time defence spending has crossed the $1 trillion threshold.
The proposal aims to bolster munitions and expand the United States naval fleet, while also beginning construction on Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defence system. It would also provide pay raises of between 5 and 7 percent for all military personnel to help with recruitment and retention.
The proposed increase comes as the United States continues its war against Iran, now entering its sixth week, and as the White House prepares to ask Congress for a separate supplemental spending package to cover the costs of that conflict.
Democratic opposition has been swift. Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the defence budget should not be dictated by a president sending service members into what she described as reckless foreign wars. Representative Betty McCollum, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defence subcommittee, called the increase “outrageous and unacceptable,” adding that the Pentagon has a problem spending existing funding responsibly, not a funding shortage.
On the domestic side, the budget proposes $73 billion in cuts to nondefense federal spending, targeting health research, education, renewable energy grants, low-income housing programs and community development funding. The proposal also continues what the White House describes as the Department of Education’s path to elimination, cuts agriculture spending by 19 percent, and slashes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget by $1.4 billion.
The president’s annual budget serves as a reflection of the administration’s priorities but does not carry the force of law. Congress, which controls federal spending, is free to reject it and often does.
