White House proposes record defence budget: $1.5 trillion
The increase of 445 billion over 2026 would be the largest since World War II. The price to be paid is social spending, with a cut of 73 billion, or 10% of the other allocations
from our correspondent Marco Valsania
NEW YORK - The demand has been put in black and white: $1.5 trillion is needed for US defence in 2027. An increase of at least 42%, 445 billion, over the current year. A budget that is not only a record, but the protagonist of unprecedented growth since World War II for the United States, which already dominates the world ranking of military investments.
The request comes from Donald Trump, the central chapter of the new budget proposal sent by the White House to Congress on the priorities to be followed and approved. A Maga budget, in fact, for war. Like the one now underway against Iran, where the president has already requested an immediate 200 billion package, but not only. It is a harbinger of a belligerent redefinition of the entire American foreign policy, still in search of labels: a Donroe Doctrine made of unilateralism and mercantilism, territorial expansionism and unscrupulous imperial nationalism lightened by neocon ideologies.
The price to be paid for the new arms race, described as 'historic' by the White House, is in social spending: Trump is demanding cuts of 73 billion, equal to 10% of non-Pentagon domestic discretionary spending, spread over agencies and ministries related to welfare and the environment, including the elimination of programmes that survived Elon Musk's Doge's efficiency mission, from climate to social housing and education. Trump had already sought such cuts in the current year, without fully succeeding, and he is back at it again. The other price is in the trajectory of the debt, which analysts expect to rise by 6.9 trillion over ten years with defence responsible for 5.8 trillion in spending.
The new proposal is an initial version summarising guidelines and will be followed by a second, more detailed document. However, it already offers a clear course in its large numbers: it breaks a radiant balance in discretionary appropriations, i.e. excluding the automatic and colossal ones in health care for the poor and elderly and pensions (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Securiry), between military and civilian spending, each close to a trillion. For the Pentagon, or rather the War Department, Trump is now asking for 1.1 trillion in the regular budget. Another 350 billion he wants with an extraordinary and fast budget manoeuvre, the reconciliation, which facilitates a simple majority vote in the Senate and avoids the opposition's filibuster.
Security is also the focus of attention outside the walls of the Pentagon. Huge resources are requested for the Ministry of Homeland Security and in particular border guards, immigration agents (ICE) and the mass detention and deportation of illegal immigrants. The Ice budget, with 2.2 billion dedicated to prisons alone, is stable but had already grown a lot and counts on exceptional, multi-year 170 billion allocations for the fight against migrants launched with the One Big Beautiful Bill tax reform. The Justice Department and its anti-crime activities could get a 13% increase to 40.8 billion.
