With the United States at war with Iran and embroiled in conflicts around the world, the White House said Friday it would ask Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion for defense in the 2027 fiscal year. If enacted, that amount would set military spending at its highest level in modern history.
The request, which arrived on Friday as part of President Trump’s new budget, would amount to a roughly 40 percent bump from what the U.S. spent on the Pentagon this fiscal year. The administration said it would couple the proposed boost with a call for $73 billion in cuts across domestic programs, but it did not specify them.
The White House released a summary of its budget request, with fuller details expected later. Together, the ideas may sum to a fiscal blueprint that could still add trillions of dollars to the brimming federal debt over the next decade, if lawmakers translate the president’s vision into law.
Mr. Trump urged Congress to approve most of the new defense money, more than $1.1 trillion, as part of their yearly work to fund the government, and to enact the remaining $350 billion using the same legislative tactic that allowed Republicans to clinch their tax cuts one year ago. He also asked lawmakers to boost federal funding to aid with border enforcement and mass deportations.
In the days before releasing the initial details of his plan, the president and his aides framed the proposed increase for defense in urgent terms, citing a need to restock munitions and other supplies amid the war with Iran. At one point, Mr. Trump indicated at a private lunch that military spending needed to be a national priority, even at the expense of federal safety-net programs and other government aid.
“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,” he said, adding the focus had to be “military protection.”
But Democrats and Republicans have expressed a shared unease recently about raising military spending to the extent that Mr. Trump has suggested, fretting that the administration has failed to keep them updated about the status of the Iran war, now in its fifth week.
Nor have lawmakers responded favorably to some of the president’s proposed cuts for agencies and programs that serve American families and businesses. Only months ago, Democrats and Republicans approved spending packages for the current fiscal year that rejected some of the same domestic cuts, which Mr. Trump endorsed as part of his 2026 submission.
This fiscal year, the White House said it would cut domestic spending by $73 billion, or about 10 percent. The administration also said it would ask Congress for a series of boosts to federal law enforcement, including more than $40 billion for the Justice Department, a 13 percent increase.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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