WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget plan would slash non-defense domestic spending by $163 billion while increasing expenditures on national security, according to White House statements Friday.
The plan shows a desire to crack down on diversity programs and initiatives to address climate change. But it doesn’t include details about what Trump wants on income taxes, tariffs, entitlement programs or the budget deficit — a sign of the challenge confronting the president when he’s promising to cut taxes and repay the federal debt without doing major damage to economic growth.
Budgets do not become law but serve as a touchstone for the upcoming fiscal year debates. Often considered a statement of values, this first budget since Trump’s return to the White House carries the added weight of defining the Republican president’s second-term pursuits, alongside his party in Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the plan showed fiscal discipline given the problems of persistently high budget deficits. The budget released on Friday did not, in fact, include a forecast on government borrowing.
“President Trump’s plan ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects,” Johnson said.
The budget seeks to cut discretionary spending by a total of 7.6% next year, but includes a 13% increase in national security spending.
The State Department and international programs would lose 84% of their money and receive $9.6 billion, a cut that reflects the existing efforts by adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The Housing and Urban Development Department would get a $33.6 billion cut, while the Health and Human Service Department would receive $33.3 trillion less and the Education Department’s spending would be reduced by $12 billion.
The Defense Department would get an additional $113.3 billion and Homeland Security would receive $42.3 billion more.
The IRS and FBI would lose money, while the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program would be ended. There would be $980 million less for college students in work-study programs, as well as similarly sized cuts for adult education and instruction for learning English.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose nearly $3.6 billion under the plan, while the National Institutes of Health would face a steep cut of almost $18 billion. The budget would eliminate more than $15 billion for infrastructure-related programs tied to climate change and $1.3 billion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The nation’s estimated $7 trillion-plus federal budget has been growing steadily, with annual deficits fast approaching $2 trillion and the annual interest payments on the debt almost $1 trillion. That’s thanks mostly to the spike in emergency COVID-19 pandemic spending, changes in the tax code that reduced revenues and the climbing costs of Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, largely to cover the nation’s health needs as people age. The nation’s debt load, at $36 trillion, is ballooning.
Democrats are prepared to assail Trump’s budget as further evidence that the Republican administration is intent on gutting government programs that Americans depend on.
Congress is already deep into the slog of drafting of Trump’s big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered funds for the administration’s mass deportation effort — a package that, unlike the budget plan, would carry the force of law.
