In case you missed it, Trump’s FY26 budget request dropped Friday, and, to quote one executive we chatted to, it was a “bloodbath.” Everything from NASA, to the NIH, to the CDC, to the EPA face massive budget cuts, while DHS is set to receive a boost of nearly $43.8B.
Up and up: At least on paper, it was a good day to be in defense. The DoD is one of the few agencies that received a funding boost (13%, or $113B), pushing the department’s total budget over $1T (an all-time high). The DoD top line also reiterated calls for “revitaliz[ing] the US defense industrial base” and deterring China in the Indo-Pacific.
In particular, Trump plans to use the funding to:
- “Make a downpayment” on the Golden Dome missile defense system
- Fund the F-47 NGAD (awarded to Boeing)
- Expand shipbuilding capacity, invest in shipyards, and increase shipbuilding wages
- Militarize the border
- Modernize the nuclear deterrent
The request also calls for a 3.8% pay rise for all servicemembers and an end to “woke climate and DEI programs” to “revive the warrior ethos of America’s Armed Forces.”
Sneaky, sneaky: Here’s the problem though: about $119B of the proposed DoD budget will actually come from the $150B allocated to defense in the “big beautiful” reconciliation bill that Republicans are working through Congress. In other words, it looks like a defense spending increase on paper but, like, actually isn’t.
Red line: In a rare rebuke, Republican lawmakers on Friday said that the budget would effectively hobble the military and stall modernization. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair (and author of the FoRGED Act) Sen. Roger Wicker said that the reconciliation funding was supposed to be an innovation-driving cherry on top—not part of the normal DoD budget.
“The [bill] was always meant to change fundamentally the direction of the Pentagon on programs like Golden Dome, border support, and unmanned capabilities – not to paper over OMB’s intent to shred to the bone our military capabilities and our support to service members,” Wicker said in a statement.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also found fault with the proposed budget. Trump will struggle to push the budget through without their support.
“Ultimately,” Collins said in a statement, “It is Congress that holds the power of the purse.”