Trump spits on all Americans in order to boost Pentagon’s budget (and armaments billionaires’ fortunes) 50%.

4 April 2026, posted by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request

Trump proposes slashing domestic investments while increasing defense spending by half a trillion dollars more

ICYMI: Trump on Wednesday: “It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare ... We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray, Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the release of President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, which proposes increasing defense spending by roughly half a trillion dollars while slashing and even defunding key domestic programs that American families count on every day.

“The vision President Trump has outlined for America in his budget is bleak and unacceptable. President Trump wants to slash medical research to fund costly foreign wars. It doesn’t get more backward than that, and the only responsible thing to do with a budget this morally bankrupt is to toss it in the trash.

“After passing the largest cuts to health care in American history, all to fund billionaire tax breaks and give ICE more money than most militaries, President Trump now wants Congress to defund dozens of programs that help students so that he can send other people’s kids to fight a war with no justification. And after sending prices skyrocketing with his stupid tariffs and reckless war, President Trump is now proposing to eliminate programs that help families afford the basics—like LIHEAP.

“This week, President Trump said that our country cannot afford to help families with child care or health care—but his own budget proves what a ridiculous farce that is. Imagine how many families we could help if, instead of giving the Pentagon more money than they can even figure out what to do with, we cut people’s heating bills in half and made child care affordable for every family in America.

“Our national defense budget should not be dictated by a president who is sending servicemembers into harm’s way in reckless foreign wars—and who woke up one day and decided to send his aides scrambling to figure out how on earth they could spend half a trillion dollars more, which the Pentagon can’t possibly spend responsibly. Donald Trump might be happy to spend more money on bombs in the Middle East than on families here in America—but I am not.

“Last year, I said I’d rip up President Trump’s budget and make sure Congress wrote a new one instead—that’s exactly what we did and will do again. The American people want their tax dollars going toward investments that help everyone and make life more affordable—the basics like utilities and child care. Those are the investments I am going to fight for. Trump wants to build a ballroom—I want to build more affordable housing, and only one of us sits on the Appropriations Committee.”

President Trump’s budget proposes slashing domestic investments by $73 billion while massively increasing the defense budget by roughly half a trillion dollars more (through both annual appropriations and reconciliation) in order to achieve an unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget that dwarfs all other non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending. This sum does not include a separate supplemental funding request expected for the Iran war.

• President Trump arbitrarily announced on Truth Social in early January that he wanted a $1.5 trillion defense budget—and sent his aides scrambling to produce a request that met his topline.

• Trump’s budget seeks to dramatically cut back on domestic investments as American families struggle to make ends meet with higher costs, and as there are already immense strains on the non-defense budget, which has been roughly flat for three successive fiscal years, while defense spending has continued to grow. Non-defense programs will be further strained with the expiration at the end of fiscal year 2026 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which has supported key non-defense priorities with tens of billions of dollars in funding each year.

PRESIDENT TRUMP WANTS TO:

• EXPLODE THE DEBT TO INCREASE DEFENSE SPENDING TO $1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS...

• ...WHILE SLASHING DOMESTIC INVESTMENTS THAT HELP FAMILIES AFFORD THE BASICS.

President Trump is proposing to gut investments American families count on in order to fund reckless wars abroad. His budget request:

ELIMINATES FUNDING TO HELP PEOPLE AFFORD THE BASICS:

• Energy Costs: Slashes funding to help Americans afford their energy bills as costs soar, thanks in large part to President Trump’s war in Iran—and guts funding to bring new, affordable energy sources online to lower Americans’ energy costs.

• LIHEAP: Zeroes out $4.05 billion in funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

• Weatherization Assistance Program: Zeroes out $369 million for the program, which helps people across the country make energy-efficiency upgrades and save significantly on their energy bills.

• IIJA: Reduces American energy supply and raises energy costs by rescinding $15.25 billion provided in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to support new energy projects.

• Renewable Energy: Guts funding for the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) programs by $1.9 billion, or 63%—killing new sources of affordable energy as Americans are crushed by the higher energy prices President Trump has caused.

• WIC: Cuts WIC fruit and vegetable benefits for the more than 7 million low-income women, infants, and children who participate in the program despite food prices continuing to rise.

• Child Care: Proposes zero new funding to help families afford child care, while pitching roughly half a trillion dollars more for defense. Zeroes out $315 million in Preschool Development Grants that help increase the supply of pre-K programs and help families afford care.

• Nutrition Assistance for Seniors: Eliminates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides supplemental food for low-income seniors. The budget claims that seniors can instead find support through SNAP, which President Trump and Republicans just made the largest cuts in American history to—including by imposing new requirements on seniors ages 60 to 64.

• Title X: Eliminates the Title X program, which helps millions of low-income patients get basic health care services, like family planning and cancer screenings.

GUTS PROGRAMS THAT KEEP FAMILIES HOUSED:

• Rental Assistance: Makes major changes to America’s rental assistance programs that will result in fewer affordable housing opportunities and force people out of their homes.

• Homelessness: Slashes funding for homeless assistance and Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS (HOPWA) programs by a combined $922 million, or 19%, and weakens the programs by moving away from proven solutions. Eliminates FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program ($117 million), which provides shelter, food, and supportive services.

• Housing Supply: Outright eliminates funding for important programs that help expand the supply of housing in America, keep people housed, and invest in communities nationwide, like the Community Development Block Grant ($3.3 billion cut to $0), HOME Investment Partnerships Program ($1.25 billion cut to $0), PRO Housing program, and many more.

• Tribal Housing: Guts funding by $467 million, or 34%, for programs that help address the dire housing needs of Indian Country, where residents are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty and nearly three times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions compared to other U.S. households.

RIPS FUNDING AWAY FROM STUDENTS:

• K-12: Slashes investments in America’s K-12 schools by eliminating roughly 30 programs currently funded at $8.4 billion, including funding for homeless students and afterschool programs. Creates a new $2 billion block grant in their place, cutting overall funding by over $6 billion, or 76%.

• Higher Education & Federal Student Aid: Defunds $4.7 billion in programs, including all but eliminating campus-based student aid programs like Federal Work Study that help students afford a postsecondary education, and eliminating programs like TRIO and GEAR UP that help students get into and succeed in college.

PUTS AMERICANS’ HEALTH AT RISK:

• HHS: Cuts funding for the Department of Health and Human Services by $16.5 billion, or 13%.

• NIH: Slashes funding for NIH and the lifesaving biomedical research it makes possible by $5.75 billion, or 12%. Cuts funding for ARPA-H by $555 million, or 37%. Once again proposes capping indirect costs, thereby cutting essential research funding, and proposes making all NIH grants multi-year awards, reducing the number of research projects funded substantially.

• CDC: Slashes funding for CDC programs by $2.9 billion, or 31%, and eliminates most of its Chronic Disease Center, including maternal health and HIV prevention programs.

• Pandemic Preparedness & Emergency Response: Slashes funding for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) by $355 million, or 10%, and makes major cuts to BARDA and Project BioShield.

• Mental Health & Substance Health Disorder Treatment: Cuts funding for a range of mental health and substance use treatment and prevention programs by $600 million and once again proposes to collapse the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) into a new “Administration for a Healthy America.”

• Rural Health: Cuts rural health programs by $95 million.

• Maternal Health: Slashes funding for maternal and child health programs at HHS by over $800 million.

• Extreme Policy Riders: Seeks to ban funding for Planned Parenthood, prevent doctors from receiving training on abortion care, prohibit fetal tissue research, and ban gender affirming care.

MAKES COMMUNITIES LESS SAFE:

• DOJ Grants: Eliminates nearly 30 DOJ grant programs and slashes overall funding for DOJ grants by $1.42 billion, or 32%—eliminating essential funding that communities nationwide count on to improve public safety.

• Office on Violence Against Women: Cuts funding for the office charged with preventing violence against women and families by $181 million, or over 25%.

• Office on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: Slashes funding for the office by $65 million, or 17%.

• Community Safety: Cuts core COPS grants by $95 million, or 24%, including eliminating state and local anti-heroin and methamphetamine task forces and police officer de-escalation training, while also reducing resources for school violence prevention.

• EPA: Guts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 52%, allowing polluters to harm families’ health.

CUTS INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING:

• Transit: Slashes funding for the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program by $486 million, or 29%, significantly reducing essential funding to improve and expand transit options for commuters across the country. There are nearly 50 transit projects nationwide in the CIG program, many of which will be ready for funding this year.

• Amtrak: Cuts funding for Amtrak by $327 million, or 13%, putting service at risk. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and National Network service lines carry over 32 million passengers a year across 46 states.

• Rural Air Service: Guts funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS), which supports air service to small and rural communities across the country, by $372 million, or 72%.

• Infrastructure Funds: While cutting key programs, the budget simultaneously does next to nothing to address the expiration of $36.8 billion in IIJA funds at the end of fiscal year 2026 for Department of Transportation (DOT) programs, which have been instrumental in helping communities nationwide build and repair bridges, roads, transit, ports, airports, and much more. Instead, it proposes a mere $2.4 billion for a handful of cherry-picked DOT programs–just 6% of what IIJA provided this fiscal year—all while rescinding $4.2 billion from two IIJA programs that state and local governments already have plans to put to good use.

• Drinking Water and Sewer System Infrastructure: All but eliminates federal funding for repairing and building systems providing clean drinking water and properly handling sewage and stormwater drainage by cutting $2.5 billion from EPA programs that provide funding to states and tribes for water infrastructure.

DIVESTS FROM COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE:

• Community Development: Slashes funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund by $205 million, or 63%, and eliminates funding for the Minority Business Development Administration (MBDA) ($50 million).

• National Parks: Cuts funding for America’s National Parks by 26% and eliminates another 2,500 positions after 2,500 employees have already been forced out by the Trump administration.

• Small Businesses: Guts funding for the Small Business Administration by 67%, including a $309 million, or 94%, cut to Entrepreneurial Development Programs.

• Emergency Preparedness: Cuts over $600 million for FEMA grant programs that help communities prepare for disasters and improve their preparedness capabilities and outright eliminates programs like the Emergency Food and Shelter program, Regional Catastrophic Preparedness program, Continuing Training Grants, the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, and Next Generation Warning System.

• Rural Development: Slashes funding to help rural communities by $352 million, including investments in safe drinking water and resources to bolster the rural economy.

• Support for Farmers: Cuts vital Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs by $266 million, and rather than working to staff up already-thin FSA field offices, proposes even deeper staffing reductions. Eliminates all discretionary funding—$732 million in total—for Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Conservation Technical Assistance, which helps producers reduce inputs like fertilizer while boosting yields and soil health.

• Agricultural Research: Slashes funding for agricultural research and extension activities by more than $750 million.

• America’s Waterways: Cuts funding for the Army Corps of Engineers by $3.8 billion (37%), slashing funding used to maintain our nation’s ports and harbors.

GUTS INVESTMENTS IN SCIENCE & AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS:

• NSF: Slashes funding for the National Science Foundation and the scientific research it makes possible by $4.8 billion, or 55%.

• NASA: Slashes funding for NASA by $5.6 billion, or 23%, contradicting the administration’s claims of “Shaping the Golden Age of Innovation.”

• NIST: Decimates the National Institute of Standards and Technology with a $993 million, or 53%, cut—undercutting the research and standards work that spurs American innovation and advances in cutting-edge scientific fields.

• Office of Science: Cuts funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science by $1.26 billion, or 15%, weakening our investments in essential scientific research that will drive future economic growth while our competitors redouble their own investments.

• American Manufacturing: Zeroes out funding ($175 million) for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), which is run by NIST and helps small- and medium-sized manufacturers grow and thrive.

• Export Promotion: Cuts funding for the International Trade Administration’s Global Markets division by $150 million, or 46%—gutting funding for the federal office that leads non-agricultural export promotion.

WASTES TAXPAYER DOLLARS ON TRUMP VANITY PROJECTS:

• Alcatraz: Requests $152 million to cover just the first year of project costs to “rebuild” Alcatraz, while ignoring billions of dollars in repair-backlog needs for existing, crumbling Bureau of Prisons facilities.

• Trump Vanity Projects: Seeks a $10 billion slush fund within the National Park Service (NPS)—without any project details—clearing the way for President Trump to finance vanity projects across Washington D.C. At the same time, the budget requests less than that amount over five years to extend the Legacy Restoration Fund to address longstanding deferred maintenance backlogs at over 400 national parks, national forests, and Tribal schools nationwide. Also requests $403 million for a separate D.C.-focused slush fund within the Department of Transportation that would allow the administration to prioritize an ill-defined set of initiatives ahead of pressing infrastructure projects nationwide.

• DOGE Rehires: Seeks funding across federal agencies to rehire for positions that were eliminated or left vacant because of President Trump and DOGE’s mass firings and staff reductions.

FURTHER ERODES AMERICA’S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP:

• State Department: Cuts Department of State capacity by reducing ongoing operations funding by 7%, despite the Department struggling to absorb key USAID responsibilities.

• Humanitarian Assistance: Slashes humanitarian assistance funding by 26% and proposes rescinding another $1 billion already approved by Congress.

• Global Health: Cuts funding for global health programs by 46%.

• International Organizations: Slashes U.S. contributions to international organizations, including zeroing out funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions, further risking that the United States will not have a seat at the table where key decisions are made.

• Food Assistance: Eliminates the Food for Peace program ($1.2 billion) and the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program ($240 million), which support U.S.-farmers growing commodities and help feed those facing hunger abroad.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.