President Donald Trump promised a record-setting $1 trillion defense budget on Monday, a nearly 12% increase from current spending that would come alongside significant cuts to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce.
Trump made the announcement during a White House event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing the proposed funding as “the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military.”
“We are very cost conscious, but the military is something that we have to build. And we have to be strong because you’ve got a lot of bad forces out there now,” Trump said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth enthusiastically endorsed the plan on X, writing: “COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar @DeptofDefense budget. President @realDonaldTrump is rebuilding our military — and FAST.”
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Hegseth added that all taxpayer dollars would be spent “wisely, on lethality and readiness.”
The proposed budget represents a substantial jump from the $892 billion Congress allocated for national defense programs this fiscal year. The Trump administration has yet to release its complete budget request for fiscal year 2026, which is not expected until later this spring.
The massive increase would coincide with Hegseth’s plans to slash “tens of thousands” of civilian Defense Department employees globally as part of a broader Pentagon consolidation effort, according to administration officials.
Republican lawmakers in Congress have previously proposed defense budget increases of up to $150 billion, though they’ve also called for offsetting cuts to non-defense programs to balance the federal budget.
Even with the increase, a $1 trillion military budget would still fall short of Trump’s stated goal of all NATO countries spending 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, military budget experts noted.
“Nobody’s seen anything like it,” Trump told reporters of the proposed funding level. “We have to build our military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something that we have to build. And we have to be strong because you’ve got a lot of bad forces out there now.”
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