Trump Proposes 44% Defense Budget Hike While Slashing Food, Housing, and Healthcare Programs

Donald Trump said the quiet part out loud last week during a private White House lunch: "It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things. They can do it on a state basis; we can't do it on a federal basis. We have to take care of one thing: military protection."

His budget proposal, released Friday, proves he meant every word.

The Numbers: War Over Everything Else

Trump is asking Congress to increase the defense budget by 44 percent in 2027. The proposed increase alone would nearly match the combined total military budgets of China and Russia.

To partially offset this spending spree, Trump proposes slashing 10 percent from all nondefense spending. The cuts target housing aid and health programs for vulnerable populations, agricultural research, and teacher training programs. Some of the spending would simply add to the national debt -- but the message is clear: bombs before bread.

Defense contractors are already cashing in. Since January, stocks for four of the five largest Department of Defense contractors have surged while the broader market has declined 4-6 percent. Lockheed Martin, which holds nearly double the contracts of its nearest competitor, is up 25 percent. Northrop Grumman has climbed 20 percent. RTX is up 5 percent, and General Dynamics has gained 1.5 percent.

The money will flow to weapons manufacturers to replenish supplies depleted by Trump's reckless war on Iran -- a conflict that has devolved from shifting military rationales into deliberate attacks on Iranian factories, hospitals, universities, pharmaceutical facilities, bridges, and schools.

The Broader Pattern: Squeezing the Poor to Fund the Rich

Trump's budget proposal does not exist in isolation. It is the third pillar of an economic agenda designed to extract wealth from working people and funnel it upward.

The first pillar was the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed in summer 2025. That law made permanent the massive upper-income tax cuts from 2017, paying for them by slashing Medicaid and food stamps. The law pushed costs for those programs onto states, many of which will simply refuse to pay. OBBBA also transformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the largest federal police agency by budget.

The second pillar is tariffs. Despite constant legal challenges and Trump's own erratic decision-making, increased tariffs are here to stay. Without any coherent industrial policy behind them, the tariffs function as a national sales tax on consumers. They hit the poor and working class hardest because those households must spend a higher proportion of their income on basic necessities. Though Trump and Republicans rarely say it explicitly, tariff revenue helps fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

Now comes the third pillar: gut social programs to pay for war.

Congress Enables Executive Overreach

Trump's budget proposal has no legal force on its own -- only Congress controls appropriations. But Republicans in Congress have not just gone along with Trump's priorities. They have actively encouraged him to seize spending authority that belongs to the legislative branch.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by executive order, eliminated at least 260,000 federal jobs and attempted to abolish entire agencies and congressionally mandated programs. DOGE cut billions in federal grants for basic research and environmental protection -- all appropriated by Congress.

Like the tariffs, Trump simply asserted he had the power to impose DOGE's cuts. Congressional Republicans grumbled but ultimately acquiesced to the executive power grab.

When courts have blocked Trump's actions, the administration either finds a legally novel workaround or ignores the ruling entirely. The judicial system has proven largely ineffective at restraining executive overreach when Congress refuses to defend its own constitutional authority.

What Trump Wants Is War

Republicans have always favored beefing up the military and cutting taxes for the rich while starving schools, hospitals, and social programs. Trump's budget proposal will not be the final word, but there are strong reasons to believe he will get much of what he wants.

And what Trump wants is war. Most immediately, he wants an unwinnable war on the Iranian people. Unable to degrade Iran's military capacity, Trump has shifted to making war on its civilian infrastructure.

Look at the target list: factories, hospitals, universities, pharmaceutical researchers, bridges, school children.

Now look at Trump's domestic target list: food assistance, medical aid, housing programs, childcare, education funding.

The pattern is unmistakable. Cut healthcare and childcare at home. Use the money to destroy healthcare and schools abroad. That is Trump's proposition -- the starkest, bleakest picture of right-wing priorities imaginable.

The modern American right has made its choice: weapons contractors over working families, war over welfare, death over dignity. Trump is not hiding it anymore. The only question is whether Congress and the American people will accept it.