Trump Vows $1 Trillion Military Boost, Slams Working Class with Massive Tax Increase

On Monday, President Donald Trump endorsed a proposed annual military budget of approximately $1 trillion, as his administration pursued an aggressive tariff policy that effectively acts as a significant tax hike on American families—with lower-income groups likely to suffer disproportionately.

During a meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump revealed that his team had approved a forthcoming defense budget close to $1 trillion, a historic high. The current defense budget stands at $892 billion, which constitutes over half of the federal discretionary spending.

“This is unprecedented,” Trump remarked on Monday regarding his budget proposal of $1 trillion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment on social media, expressing his vigorous support for the $1 trillion defense budget and committing to allocate the funds towards “lethality and readiness.”

Here are Trump’s remarks:

William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, issued a warning Tuesday stating, “Spending $1 trillion on the Pentagon while depleting diplomatic resources and starting a global trade war is a formula for international strife and the decline of America.”

“The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan should have shown us that a military-first foreign policy strategy is both ineffective and exceedingly costly in terms of both lives and money,” Hartung argued. “In terms of addressing China’s challenge, a more balanced strategy that combines diplomacy with deterrence, and maintains opportunities for dialogue and cooperation on critical issues like climate change, pandemics, and the fragile global economy is essential.”

Hartung further noted, “Opting for a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget at the cost of other vital needs is a trillion-dollar mistake.”

The comments by Trump and Hegseth suggest that the Pentagon—often criticized for wasteful spending and misuse of funds, mostly benefiting private contractors—will likely continue to be shielded from the cost-cutting initiatives led by Elon Musk aimed at enhancing governmental efficiency.

In February, Hegseth drafted a memo directing Pentagon leaders to formulate plans to cut the military budget annually over the next five years. However, it soon became evident that Pentagon officials are looking to reallocate funds towards Trump’s priorities—including his controversial Iron Dome for America project—rather than trimming the overall expenditure.

Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, with strong bipartisan support in Congress, the U.S. military budget has steadily approached the $1 trillion mark, despite the Pentagon’s failure to pass an audit and ongoing evidence of extensive fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Trump’s budget proposal must be ratified by the Republican-led Congress, which is currently, with the president’s backing, working to further reduce taxes for wealthy individuals and major corporations, as well as slash funding for Medicare, food assistance, and other federal aid programs.

“Trump’s plan to gut Medicaid and SNAP benefits while handing over a trillion dollars to the Pentagon,” wrote Stephen Semler, co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, “should provide the Democrats with a clear political message—if they can’t capitalize on these simple truths, they barely function as an opposition, let alone a political party.”

The story has been updated to include comments from William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.