Trump Floats Record $1 Trillion Military Budget Despite Pledge to Cut Government, Reduce Spending
President Donald Trump’s effort to make sweeping cuts to federal spending apparently does not include the Department of Defense as he’s now touting a plan to approve a $1 trillion military budget.
During a Monday meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he plans to build up the military with a massive budget while also touting the work of DOGE in identifying fraud and waste in current spending. Trump said that despite the $1 trillion budget, he plans on being very “cost-conscious.”
Trump said:
We rebuilt the military during my first term and we have great things happening with our military. We also essentially approved a budget which is in the vicinity… of a trillion dollars, $1 trillion. And nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build our military and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build and we have to be strong because you have a lot of bad forces out there now. So we’re going to be approving a budget and I’m proud to say actually the biggest one we’re ever done for the military. We’re cutting other things under DOGE… when you look at a woman getting $2 billion for environmental and it had nothing to do with environment and they had $100 in the bank and they gave her $2 billion. Many, many of those cases.
In 2024, the Department of Defense requested a budget of $850 billion, similar to the prior year. It has long failed to pass an an annual audit of its spending.
The president said in February that he had directed Elon Musk and DOGE to look at Pentagon spending cuts. Musk’s companies having DoD contracts has been red-flagged by some critics as a conflict of interest.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth celebrated Trump’s DoD budget promise, insisting the extra money would be spent “wisely.”
“Thank you Mr. President!” he wrote. “COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar [Department of Defense] budget. President [Donald Trump] is rebuilding our military — and FAST. (PS: we intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely — on lethality and readiness).”
Watch above via Fox News.
