Trump wants to increase US military spending by 40% amid the war with Iran

WashingtonAfter addressing the nation to ask for more time and patience to end the war against Iran, Donald Trump is now looking to Congress for more money. The White House presented a budget this Friday to spend 1.5 trillion dollars on defense in 2027. If approved, it would be the highest allocation in modern history, with an increase of 40% compared to this year's accounts. Although the package is not directly linked to the conflict in the Middle East, it coincides with the first month of war. It is estimated that in the first 100 hours of campaign – which began on February 28 – Washington had spent a minimum of 3.7 billion dollars, that is, about 888 million dollars per day.

The Republican government's forecast would be to offset the increase with a cut of 73 billion dollars, which would involve eliminating some programs on issues such as climate change, the meteorological service, housing, and education. Trump returned to the White House with the promise of America first and prioritizing Americans, but now wants to disinvest in aid for its citizens and dedicate it to foreign conflicts.

In the days leading up to the budget presentation, Trump had already told his advisors in a private dinner about the need to make military spending a national priority. Even if it were at the expense of social programs like Medicaid and Medicare, intended to help pay for health insurance. "We can't take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, and all these individual issues. They can do it at the state level. We are a big country [...] We are fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare," said the president. The declarations made during the meeting were mistakenly shared by the White House on its YouTube channel and later removed.

The president has already dismantled a good part of the meteorological emergency agency, FEMA, and has caused concern about the country's ability to prevent future meteorological disasters. 2025 was marked by the deadly floods in Texas with at least 119 deaths and more than 160 missing. On the other hand, the president has already reduced a good part of the social aid programs of the Department of Education.

Regarding housing, one of the few measures that Trump has implemented to try to solve the crisis that Americans are suffering is to approve a decree-law that prohibits Wall Street giants from buying buildings to rent them out. However, it leaves a legal loophole that does allow them to build housing to dedicate to rent. In recent years in the US, it has been seen how large private equity firms like Blackstone had already stopped betting on the purchase of buildings and had gone directly to construction for the purpose of renting.

Cutback of social programs

The cutback of social programs to increase defense spending for fiscal year 2027 would also add to the bleeding that Trump caused last year with his Big Beautiful Bill. It is estimated that this tax law will leave more than 11 million Americans without medical coverage by 2034. As the president wanted to extend the tax cuts for companies that he approved during his first term, he had to cut from somewhere. And that is why he cut approximately one trillion dollars from Medicaid – one of the programs to receive medical assistance in a country without a public health system – and reduced food aid for the most vulnerable.

The One Big Beautiful Bill already foresaw an increase in public debt by more than 3.3 trillion dollars, and, now, the defense budget that Trump has presented threatens to inflate it even further. Not to mention how the deficit created in the first month of war will also impact the country's debt. One of the Republican's other campaign promises was to reduce the public debt of the United States, and under this supposed premise, Trump let Elon Musk run the chainsaw through federal agencies in the first months of government. A wave of layoffs that also served to purge the civil service.

Hegseth dismisses the Chief of Staff of the Army

The purge, however, has continued. On Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had fired the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Randy George. The dismissal comes at a time when the Iran war has already dragged on longer than expected and specialized ground operation troops have already been deployed in the region. Although heads rolling is customary under Trump's presidencies, dismissing the head of a military branch in wartime is an unusual occurrence.

George joins the list of dismissals led by Trump and Hegseth within the military skeleton. A year ago, the president and his defense secretary already brought down Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, who was also the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy; General James C. Slife, vice chief of staff of the Air Force; as well as the top legal advisors for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Resignations must also be added to the dismissals: amid extrajudicial executions against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea, Admiral Alvin Holsey resigned as head of Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). Holsey had taken office just over a year earlier.