US President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal dramatically slashes non-defence domestic spending by $163 billion while boosting national security funding and cutting key programmes across education, health, housing and climate sectors — a fiscal blueprint that lays bare the priorities of his second term. The budget, released Friday, includes a sweeping 7.6 per cent cut to discretionary domestic programmes but a 13 per cent increase in national security spending. Trump’s proposal aims to dismantle key federal efforts on diversity, climate change, and public broadcasting, while doubling down on military and immigration enforcement spending. “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,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson. “The plan shows fiscal discipline given the problems of persistently high budget deficits,” he added, even though the budget notably did not include any projections on federal borrowing. Democrats slammed the proposal as a brutal attack on working families, accusing Trump of catering to the wealthy and undermining key public services. “President Trump has made his priorities clear as day: he wants to outright defund programmes that help working Americans while he shovels massive tax breaks at billionaires like himself and raises taxes on middle-class Americans with his reckless tariffs,” said Senator Patty Murray. Big cuts, bigger military Under Trump’s budget, the State Department and international programmes would see an 84 per cent cut, dropping to $9.6 billion, in line with recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency led by adviser Elon Musk. The Department of Housing and Urban Development would lose $33.6 billion, and the Department of Health and Human Services would face a staggering $33.3 trillion reduction — a figure likely to raise questions about accuracy or intent. Meanwhile, the Pentagon would receive a $113.3 billion boost, and the Department of Homeland Security would get an additional $42.3 billion. The plan also calls for eliminating the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and cutting $980 million from work-study funding for college students. The Education Department would see a $12 billion cut, while adult education and English-language instruction face similarly sized reductions. The budget wipes out nearly $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health and strips $3.6 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It would also eliminate more than $15 billion in infrastructure programmes tied to climate change and take away $1.3 billion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. No clarity on taxes, entitlements or deficits Despite Trump’s promises to cut taxes and reduce the federal debt, the budget offers no specifics on income taxes, entitlement programmes, or deficit reduction. It also omits revenue projections, which critics say points to a broader contradiction in Trump’s messaging. As per a report by the Associated Press, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), led by Russell Vought — one of the key architects of Project 2025 — released only a so-called “skinny” version of topline numbers. A full version is expected later, along with more details on deficit drivers. The US is now staring down a $36 trillion debt load, annual deficits nearing $2 trillion, and almost $1 trillion in annual interest payments — driven by Covid-era spending, tax cuts, and rising health care costs, the report added. Vought, who has also drafted an additional $9 billion rescissions package targeting the US Agency for International Development and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is expected to press the case for Trump’s budget on Capitol Hill. The package includes an executive order Trump signed Thursday to immediately cease funding to PBS and NPR. Tariffs in, tax cuts TBD While Trump continues imposing new tariffs, effectively raising hundreds of billions in consumer costs, the budget does not clarify how the administration plans to reconcile tax cuts with deficit reduction. “We are awaiting some final calculations on a few of the tax components, and we expect to be able to complete that work on a very aggressive schedule,” Johnson said. Trump’s sweeping cuts arrive just as Congress is embroiled in efforts to finalise a comprehensive package of tax breaks, spending cuts, and immigration enforcement funding.
