During his first run for the White House, President Trump assailed his predecessors for wasting trillions of dollars on unnecessary wars in the Middle East and argued that the money could have been used for the benefit of the United States.
“We could have rebuilt our country twice,” Mr. Trump said in a 2016 speech in Charlotte, N.C., arguing that costly American military adventures served only to further destabilize the region: “Imagine if that money had been spent here at home.”
Nearly a decade later, Mr. Trump is entrenched in his own Middle East conflict that by some estimates is costing the United States as much as a billion dollars per day. The soaring price of the war underscores the economic trade-offs that the Trump administration faces as it looks to enact an “America First” policy agenda that the president said would focus on lowering consumer costs and rebuilding domestic manufacturing.
More than a year into his second term, Mr. Trump can point to progress on what he considers his domestic priorities, including all but sealing the border to illegal immigration and cutting taxes and regulations. But as the White House prepares to unveil its 2027 budget this week, Mr. Trump made clear that military spending is a priority over any expansion of government social-safety net programs that many of his working-class supporters increasingly rely upon.
“The United States can’t take care of day care,” Mr. Trump said at the White House on Wednesday. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things, they can do it on a state basis.”
Adding that the United States is a big country that is “fighting wars,” Mr. Trump said, “We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”
White House officials said Mr. Trump was referring to rooting out fraud in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which he would continue to work to strengthen.
“The president proudly signed historic legislation eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits for nearly all seniors and barring illegal immigrants and other ineligible individuals from fraudulently receiving Medicare and Medicaid benefits,” said Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman. “The Trump economic agenda will continue to lower costs, making everyday life more affordable for hard-working American families.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, wrote in a post on X that “Democrats and the left-wing media are dishonestly taking President Trump’s comments out of context.”
The president’s comments, at an Easter luncheon on Wednesday, drew criticism from Democrats about his priorities ahead of the midterm elections this year. The war with Iran has sent gasoline prices above $4 per gallon, increasing the financial burden on inflation-weary Americans.
“Trump would have you believe that spending taxpayer dollars on health care, food assistance and child care is a ‘little scam’ but wants Congress to authorize $200 billion for an illegal war he has no clue how to manage,” said Representative Don Beyer, Democrat of Virginia.
Representative Shri Thanedar, Democrat of Michigan, accused the president of choosing the war over helping children and the sick.
“He’s CHOOSING to cut Medicaid and Medicare for more money for war,” Mr. Thanedar wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
The Pentagon asked Congress last month for $200 billion for the war in Iran, and officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the fighting had cost more than $11.3 billion.
Analysts have estimated that United States is spending around $1 billion per day in its campaign to cripple Iran’s military and end its nuclear program, putting the cost of the fighting so far at just over $30 billion.
That is in line with the cost of a year of universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, according to a 2022 analysis by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Bharat Ramamurti, former deputy director of the National Economic Council in the Biden administration, said the Iran war funding that Mr. Trump has requested would pay for the free community college program that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. proposed. He suggested that Mr. Trump was shifting away from the populist ideas that made him so appealing to voters.
“Even for centrist or right-leaning voters who might have skepticism about government spending programs, a large group would probably say we should be spending on things that would benefit Americans rather than some Middle East war,” Mr. Ramamurti said.
Referring to the war, he added: “This is one of the most unpopular political positions to possibly hold and runs counter to all of his America First rhetoric.”
Expanding social safety nets has never been a priority for Mr. Trump, who has long focused on investments in border security and tax cuts intended to boost economic growth. Unlike many Republicans, Mr. Trump has avoided proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump suggested that tariff revenue could help pay for child care costs.
“We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s — relatively speaking — not very expensive, compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” Mr. Trump said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York in 2024.
However, Mr. Trump never sought to expand access to cheaper child care.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration tried to block federal child care funds from flowing to five Democratic-led states because of concerns about fraud. A federal judge in January blocked the move, saying that there was no legal basis for freezing the funds.
With costs of the war mounting daily, Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he expected fighting to end within weeks. Trump administration officials have argued that the war with Iran would be worth the short term-economic costs because it would guarantee security in the Middle East.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month: “There is no prosperity without security, and what we had before was the illusion of security.”
Alan Rappeport is an economic policy reporter for The Times, based in Washington. He covers the Treasury Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters.
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