Trump's $1.5T military budget would be the biggest in modern US history. Here's exactly what the US would have to give up to fund it

The budget isn't law. It's a proposal — a wish list that signals the administration's priorities before Congress writes the actual spending bills. Lawmakers rejected many of Trump's proposed cuts last year and may do so again. But as a roadmap for where the White House wants to take the country, the numbers are hard to ignore.

The big picture

The $1.5 trillion defense request breaks down into $1.1 trillion in standard Pentagon funding and $350 billion that the administration wants passed through budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in Congress.

That's separate from a $200 billion emergency supplemental request the Pentagon has floated for the war in Iran, which has been running an estimated $1 billion per day since strikes began Feb. 28. If both pass, the total military ask approaches $1.7 trillion.

The White House says the increase is necessary to maintain American dominance in what it calls the most dangerous global security environment since World War II. The money would go toward the Golden Dome missile defense system, 34 new Navy ships, critical minerals production and a 5-7% pay raise for troops.

On the other side of the ledger, civilian federal workers would receive no pay raise (2).

What's being cut — and why the administration says it should be

The White House frames the $73 billion in domestic reductions as getting rid of "woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs" and handing responsibilities back to state and local governments. Critics say many of these programs provide essential services that states can't easily pick up on their own.

Medical research — $5 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health. The administration says NIH "broke the trust of the American people" with "wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health."

NIH is the world's largest public funder of biomedical research — cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes and infectious diseases.

Low-income energy assistance — gone. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps roughly 6 million households pay heating and cooling bills. The White House would zero it out entirely, saving an estimated $4 billion. Most recipients are seniors, people with disabilities or families with young children.

Education — The budget continues to push the Department of Education toward what the administration calls a "path to elimination." Federal student aid, Title I funding for low-income school districts and teacher training grants would all take hits. The administration says education is a state-level job.

Health emergency preparedness and community services — The budget cuts $356 million from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the agency that handles pandemic and bioterror readiness. It also eliminates both the Community Services Block Grant and the Community Development Block Grant, which fund affordable housing, job training, small-business lending, and anti-poverty programs at the local level.

Clean energy — $15.2 billion in grants cancelled. The administration is pulling Department of Energy grants established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — what the White House calls ending "the Green New Scam."

Agriculture — 19% cut. USDA would lose $4.9 billion, hitting food safety inspection, crop insurance and rural development programs.

NASA — 23% cut. The budget would divert $5.6 billion from NASA, reducing its budget to $18.8 billion. The administration wants to kill 40 missions — including Mars Sample Return — to save roughly $3.4 billion. The Artemis moon landing program survives, with $731 million allocated to get astronauts on the lunar surface by 2028.

National Science Foundation — 55% cut. NSF would drop to about $4 billion, one of the steepest percentage reductions among agencies. The budget eliminates funding for the entire division that supports research in social sciences and economics.

State Department — 30.4% cut. Billions would come out of humanitarian assistance and global health programs, though consular and border security functions stay intact.

Labor Department — 25.9% cut. The budget eliminates Job Corps, the $1.6 billion job training program for low-income young adults, and replaces several workforce programs with a new block grant called Make America Skilled Again.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting — gone. The budget wipes out the $595 million agency that funds NPR and PBS.

IRS — $1.4 billion cut. The administration already slashed IRS staffing by 27% (3) and now wants to take the agency's budget from $11.2 billion to $9.8 billion. The White House says it's "unwinding" a Biden-era hiring surge. Tax policy experts warn that a smaller IRS means slower refunds and less enforcement of tax cheating — and the agency's own data shows a $696 billion annual gap in uncollected revenue (4).

Health and Human Services — 12.5% cut ($15.8 billion). HHS oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the FDA and NIH. It's the largest percentage cut of any major department outside of the EPA (52%) and the Small Business Administration (67%) (5).

What's getting more

It's not all cuts. Besides the Pentagon, a handful of agencies would see real money added.

The Department of Veterans Affairs would get a 9% bump in discretionary funding, with extra money for medical care, mental health services and $4.2 billion to resume rolling out a new electronic health records system.

The Department of Justice would get a 13% raise — $40.8 billion total. The FBI alone would jump $1.9 billion to $12.5 billion, with new funding for counter-drone operations, counterterrorism and security prep for the 2028 Olympics. The Bureau of Prisons would get $1.7 billion more, including $152 million for the first year of rebuilding Alcatraz as a working federal prison — a project ordered by executive action.

The FAA would get a $481 million boost for air traffic controller hiring and $4 billion to build a new air traffic control system the administration calls BNATCS. And the budget sets aside $10 billion for beautification projects in Washington, D.C., through a new Presidential Capital Stewardship Program at the National Park Service.