The White House says President Donald Trump's upcoming budget will propose a whopping $54 billion increase in defense spending and impose corresponding cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid.

White House budget officials outlined the information during a telephone call with reporters given on condition of anonymity. The budget officials on the call ignored requests to put the briefing on the record, even though Trump decried on Friday the use of anonymous sources by the media.

Trump's defense budget and spending levels for domestic agency operating budgets will be revealed in a partial submission to Congress next month, with proposals on taxes and other programs coming later.

The approximately 10 percent increase for the Pentagon would fulfill a Trump campaign promise to build up the military. One official said there will be a reduction in foreign aid and that most domestic agencies will face cuts. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending, but ran into immediate opposition from Republicans in Congress who must approve his plan and said it was not enough to meet the military’s needs.

The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world’s strongest military power.

The plan came under fire from Democratic lawmakers, who said cuts being proposed to pay for the additional military spending would cripple important domestic programs such as environmental protection and education.

A White House budget official, who outlined the plan on a conference call with reporters, said the administration would propose “increasing defense by $54 billion or 10 percent.” That represents the magnitude of the increase over budget caps Congress put in place in 2011.

But Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, said the plan would bring the Pentagon’s budget to $603 billion in total, just 3 percent more than the $584 billion the agency spent in the most recent fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2016.

The rise would be slightly higher than the country’s current 2.5 percent rate of inflation.

“President Trump intends to submit a defense budget that is a mere 3 percent above President (Barack) Obama’s defense budget, which has left our military underfunded, undersized, and unready to confront threats to our national security,” John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

The defense boost would be balanced by slashing the same amount from non-defense spending, including a large reduction in foreign aid, the White House budget official said.

Trump does not have the final say on federal spending. His plan for the military is part of a budget proposal to Congress, which, although it is controlled by his fellow Republicans, will not necessarily follow his plans. Budget negotiations with lawmakers can take months.

McCain told reporters he would not vote for a budget with the slight military increase and thought it would face opposition in the Senate.

Trump told state governors at the White House his budget plan included a “historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States of America.”

He said his proposal was a “landmark event” and would send a message of “American strength, security and resolve” to other countries.

Related Coverage Key lawmaker calls Trump defense budget request low

BIG CUTS TO STATE DEPARTMENT

Officials familiar with Trump’s budget blueprint said the plan would call for cuts to agencies including the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

One official familiar with discussions over State’s budget said the agency could see spending cut by as much as 30 percent, which would force a major department restructuring and elimination of programs.

The United States spends about $50 billion annually on the State Department and foreign assistance.

More than 120 retired U.S. generals and admirals urged Congress on Monday to fully fund U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid, saying such programs “are critical to keeping America safe.”

Trump has vowed to spare middle-class social programs such as Social Security and Medicare from any cuts.

Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Trump’s plan to slash funding for federal agencies to free up money for the Pentagon showed he was not putting American working families first.

“A $54 billion cut will do far-reaching and long-lasting damage to our ability to meet the needs of the American people and win the jobs of the future,” Pelosi said. “The president is surrendering America’s leadership in innovation, education, science and clean energy.”

SHORING UP ‘CHOKE POINTS’

An official familiar with the proposal said Trump’s request for the Pentagon included more money for shipbuilding, military aircraft and establishing “a more robust presence in key international waterways and choke points” such as the Strait of Hormuz and South China Sea.

That could put Washington at odds with Iran and China. The United States already has the world’s most powerful fighting force and it spends far more than any other country on defense.

About one-sixth of the federal budget goes to military spending.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Governor's Dinner in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Trump has said previously he would expand the Army to 540,000 active-duty troops from its current 480,000, increase the Marine Corps to 36 battalions from 23 – or as many as 10,000 more Marines – boost the Navy to 350 ships and submarines from 276, and raise the number of Air Force tactical aircraft to 1,200 from 1,100.

He has not said where he would place the extra hardware and forces or made clear what they would be used for. The United States has been shutting some of its military bases in recent years.

Trump has also said he would bolster the development of missile defenses and cyber capabilities. Last week, he told Reuters the United States had “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.” He pledged to ensure that “we’re going to be at the top of the pack.” </s> WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s upcoming budget will ask for $54 billion increase in defense budget.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. </s> President Donald Trump's first budget proposal included a 2.1 percent pay increase for military troops in fiscal 2018 -- the same as was recently approved by Congress for the current year.

The pay request topped the proposal by the administration of President Barack Obama for a military pay hike of 1.6 percent for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Even so, Trump's overall spending plan appeared to fall far short of his campaign pledge to fund a "historic" rebuilding of the military.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said the Defense Department baseline budget proposal of $603 billion for fiscal 2018 unveiled on Tuesday by the White House Office of Management and Budget didn't offer significantly more than Obama had initially proposed for the same period and would face a major overhaul in the House and Senate.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex) told reporters that presidential budget proposals were often "dead on arrival" in Congress and "I think (Trump's) may find a similar fate."

The 2.1 pay raise proposal would translate into about $50 more per month for enlisted troops with four years of service and about $115 a month for officers with six years," according to Stars & Stripes.

-- Editor's note: This story will be updated.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. </s> WASHINGTON — President Trump has signed off on top-line numbers in a budget outline that seeks to make good on his campaign promises to bolster military spending while making deep cuts to other federal agencies, including the .

"This budget will be a public safety and national security budget, very much based on those two with plenty of other things but very strong," Trump said Monday. "And it will include a historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States of America at a time we most need it."

He said he will lay out more detail during a prime-time joint address to Congress Tuesday.

"This defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government," Trump said. "We're going to do more with less."

said the budget proposal will include a $54 billion increase in defense spending and an equivalent cut in non-defense, discretionary spending. That would mean a roughly 5% decrease from the current discretionary budget of $1.064 trillion.

As part of those cuts, the administration may seek to decrease foreign aid, something the president hinted at Monday morning during a meeting with governors at the White House. Trump said the budget "puts America first by keeping tax dollars in America."

It also includes investments in law enforcement and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"We can do so much more with the money we spend," Trump said. "With $20 trillion in debt, can you imagine that, the government must learn to tighten its belt, something families all across the country have had to learn to do unfortunately." </s> WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a "historic" increase in military spending of more than 9 percent, a huge rise even as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world's strongest military power.

Trump will seek to boost Pentagon spending in the next fiscal year by $54 billion in his first budget proposal and slash the same amount from non-defense spending, including a large reduction in foreign aid, a White House budget official said on Monday.

The president does not have the final say on federal spending. His plan for the military is part of a budget proposal to Congress, which, while it is controlled by his fellow Republicans, will not necessarily follow his plans. Budget negotiations with lawmakers can take months to play out.

Trump told state governors at the White House that his budget plan includes a "historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the United States of America."

"This is a landmark event and message to the world in these dangerous times, of American strength, security and resolve. We must ensure that our courageous servicemen and women have the tools they need to deter war and when called upon to fight in our name, only do one thing: Win," he said.

Officials familiar with Trump's proposal said the defense increase would be financed partly by cuts to the State Department, Environmental Protection Agency and other non-defense programs.

"We´re going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people," Trump said.

Such a military spending hike would be unusual given that the United States is not engaged in a major war, although its special forces and Air Force are active against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

An official familiar with the proposal said Trump's request for the Pentagon included more money for shipbuilding, military aircraft and establishing "a more robust presence in key international waterways and choke points" such as the Strait of Hormuz and South China Sea.

That could put Washington at odds with Iran and China. The United States already has the world's most powerful fighting force and it spends far more than any other country on defense.

Defense spending in the most recent fiscal year was $584 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, so Trump's planned $54 billion increase would be a rise of 9.2 percent. The next fiscal year starts in October.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Trump´s plan to slash funding for federal agencies to free up money for the Pentagon shows he is not putting American working families first.

"A $54 billion cut will do far-reaching and long-lasting damage to our ability to meet the needs of the American people and win the jobs of the future," Pelosi said. "The president is surrendering America´s leadership in innovation, education, science and clean energy."

In a speech to conservative activists on Friday, Trump promised "one of the greatest military buildups in American history."

A second official said the State Department's budget could be cut by as much as 30 percent, which would force a major restructuring of the department and elimination of programs.

The United States spends about $50 billion annually on the State Department and foreign assistance.

More than 120 retired U.S. generals and admirals urged Congress on Monday to fully fund U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid, saying that "elevating and strengthening diplomacy and development alongside defense are critical to keeping America safe."

Trump has previously said he would expand the Army to 540,000 active-duty troops from its current 480,000, increase the Marine Corps from 23 to 36 battalions - or as many as 10,000 more Marines - boost the Navy from 276 to 350 ships and submarines, and raise the number of Air Force tactical aircraft from 1,100 to 1,200.

But he has not said where he would place the extra hardware and forces or made clear what they will be used for. The United States has been shutting some of its military bases in recent years.

Trump has also said he would bolster the development of missile defenses and cyber capabilities. Last week, he told Reuters the United States has "fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity." He pledged to ensure that, "We're going to be at the top of the pack."

Trump also said on Monday he would talk about his plans for infrastructure spending in a speech to Congress on Tuesday. "We're going to start spending on infrastructure big," he said.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking on Fox News on Sunday, said Trump's budget would not seek cuts in federal social programs such as Social Security and Medicare. </s> Trump administration officials are previewing details of the president's first budget blueprint that is expected to include a boost in defense spending offset by cutbacks to foreign aid and other "lower priority" programs.

Two Office of Management and Budget officials said in a conference call with reporters today that the "passback budget" being sent for Congress' review will be seen as a “security budget,” with a proposed increase of $54 billion in defense spending.

The officials reiterated this was merely a “first draft” and shell of what the administration will send Congress in its formal budget request next month.

During a drop-by of the National Governors Association meeting today, President Trump said the budget will include "an historic increase in defense spending."

“This budget will be a public safety and national security budget,” Trump said. “Very much based on those two with plenty of other things but very strong."

The two OMB officials, who were authorized by the White House to request anonymity in their briefing of reporters, did not say which departments would feel the brunt of these cuts, though they said “there will be a large reduction in foreign aid” in keeping with Trump’s campaign promises.

When it was pointed out by a reporter on the call that foreign aid amounts to less than 1 percent of spending by the U.S., the officials said the proposed reduction should still be praised for putting Americans first.

"This budget expects the rest of the world to step up in some of the programs this country has been so generous in funding in the past," one OMB official said.

The officials also did not specify what specifically the increase in defense spending would pay for, instead saying that the money would be sent to the Pentagon for them to allocate.

Trump also said in his remarks to the NGA that the budget includes an increase in “all spending for federal law enforcement.” </s> Proposal, which could entail big cuts in foreign aid and spending on domestic agencies, to fulfil key campaign promise.

Donald Trump has reportedly proposed an increase in the 2018 US defence budget by $54bn, while imposing funding cuts to other domestic programmes and foreign aid.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity at the White House's insistence, spoke about the bid to boost military spending by about 10 percent on Monday, the same day that Trump promised a "historic" increase in the defence budget.

"This budget follows through on my promise on keeping Americans safe ... It will include a historic increase in budget spending," Trump said as he met state governors at the White House.

The Pentagon's budget increase would fulfil a Trump campaign promise to build up the military.

A senior budget office official said there will be a large reduction in foreign aid and that most domestic agencies will have to absorb cuts, without offering more details.

Tentative proposals for the 2018 budget year that begins on October 1 are being sent to agencies, which will have a chance to propose changes to the cuts as part of a longstanding tradition at the budget office.

Trump's budget, once finalised and sent to Congress in mid-March, is expected to set off a major political debate in Washington DC.

Democrats and some Republicans are certain to resist the cuts to domestic agencies, and any legislation to implement them would have to overcome a filibuster threat by Senate Democrats.

According to an administration official, Trump's budget also will not make significant changes to Social Security or Medicare.

Capitol Hill aides confirmed details of the upcoming blueprint on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not yet been made public.

Trump's first major initiative will land in the agencies one day before his first address to a joint session of Congress.

For Trump, the primetime speech is an opportunity to refocus his young presidency on the core economic issues that were a centerpiece of his White House run. </s> President Trump revealed Monday he plans to hike defense spending by 10% or $54 billion as part of his first budget proposal. </s> It’s the biggest budget the Pentagon has ever seen: US$700 billion. That’s far more in defence spending than America’s two nearest competitors, China and Russia, and will mean the military can foot the bill for thousands more troops, more training, more ships and a lot else.

And next year it would rise to US$716 billion. Together, the two-year deal provides what Defence Secretary Jim Mattis says is needed to pull the military out of a slump in combat readiness at a time of renewed focus on the stalemated conflict in Afghanistan and the threat of war on the Korean peninsula.

The budget bill that President Donald Trump signed Friday includes huge spending increases for the military: The Pentagon will get US$94 billion more this budget year than last — a 15.5 per cent jump. It’s the biggest year-over-year windfall since the budget soared by 26.6 per cent, from US$345 billion in 2002 to US$437 billion the year after, when the nation was fighting in Afghanistan, invading Iraq and expanding national defence after the 9-11 attacks.

The extra money is not targeted at countering a new enemy or a singular threat like al-Qaida extremists or the former Soviet Union. Instead the infusion is being sold as a fix for a broader set of problems, including a deficit of training, a need for more hi-tech missile defences, and the start of a complete recapitalization of the nuclear weapons arsenal.

Every secretary of defence since 2011, when the Congress passed a law setting firm limits on military and domestic spending, has complained that spending caps set by the Budget Control Act were squeezing the military so hard that the number of ready-to-fight combat units was dwindling. Aging equipment was stacking up, troops were not getting enough training and the uncertain budget outlook was clouding America’s future.

“I cannot overstate the negative impact to our troops and families’ morale from all this budget uncertainty,” Mattis said just hours before the House and Senate approved the deal.

More money for the Pentagon, however, is not the simple solution some might think. Even with the spending caps of recent years, the defence budget has been robust by historical standards. Todd Harrison, a defence budget specialist at the Center for Security and International Studies, says military funding has been near the inflation-adjusted peak levels of the armed forces buildup during the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan.

The problem, Harrison says, is that the budgets have been stretched by rising personnel costs, more expensive technology investments and other factors, compounded by the cumulative effects of more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. And throughout this period, the military has been required to keep up or even increase its pace of operations at home and abroad — and there is no letup in sight.
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“We are stretched too thin,” Harrison said Friday. “We are trying to do too much with the size force that we have all around the world. Money doesn’t necessarily fix that.”

The U.S. has far fewer troops in Iraq than it did 10 years ago, and the roughly 15,000 in Afghanistan today compare with a peak of 100,000 in 2010-11, but the trend is leaning in the opposite direction under President Donald Trump, including stepped up counterterrorism operations in Somalia and Yemen. Trump has added several thousand troops in Afghanistan. Also, the prospect of war against North Korea looms large as Trump insists on compelling the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

The enormous increases in defence spending agreed to by lawmakers on Friday go beyond what Trump ask for. Of the $700 million in spending for the 2018 budget year that started last October 1, about US$629 billion is for core Pentagon operations and nearly US$71 billion is for the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Trump had requested a 2018 military budget of US$603 billion for basic functions and US$65 billion for war missions.

The deal Congress approved early Friday also sets the Pentagon’s 2019 budget at US$716 billion, giving Mattis the financial stability he’s been demanding.

The biggest winners in the military buildup are the country’s largest defence contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics, that spend millions of dollars each year lobbying Congress.

The legislation that Trump signed Friday is expected to translate to billions more for one of the Pentagon’s highest priorities: missile defence. The appropriations committees still need to finalize exactly what will be in the 2018 defence budget. But they’re likely to follow closely the defence policy bill approved by Congress late last year. That included US$12.3 billion for the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency and ordered a more rapid buildup of the nation’s missile defences as North Korea has refused to back away from developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the United States.

The policy bill included money for as many as 28 additional Ground-Based Interceptors – anti-missile missiles that would be launched from underground silos in Alaska in the event the U.S. decided to try to shoot down a North Korean missile heading toward the United States. The bill also grants U.S. troops a 2.4 per cent pay raise, slightly higher than the Pentagon had proposed.

Before the budget deal was reached, Congress frequently resorted to the use of stopgap spending bills. Under these short-term measures, the Pentagon’s budget was locked at current year’s levels and the military services can be barred from starting new programs or ending old ones. The Pentagon complained that the stopgap approach forced them to shift dollars intended for new weapons and other needed equipment to pay for ongoing operations.
The Trump administration plans to increase the budget of the United States Armed Forces by more than 9%.