April 03, 2026 10:37 AM UTC

America Last: Trump Demands $1.5 Trillion for Military at Expense of Everything Else

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Trump on Wednesday delivered a rambling prime time address about the Iran War that left more questions than answers about everything from the purpose of the conflict to when American attacks might conclude.

Tom Nichols of The Atlantic later assessed Trump’s confounding remarks in a commentary titled, “Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech”:

His address did not come across as a wartime speech but instead was a disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies) delivered by a man who looked and sounded tired. After his 19 minutes on the air—brisk by Trump’s standards—Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now than they were only a few days ago…

…If the president meant to be reassuring, however, he missed the mark. The reality, as best we can tell, is that Trump fully expected the Iranian regime to collapse in a matter of days or weeks, and he is now flummoxed to find out that a major war is a lot more complicated than he—or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—realized.

But just because President Trump has no idea what he is doing in Iran doesn’t mean he won’t throw a sizable percentage of American resources at a problem of his own making. As The New York Times reports, Trump now wants Congress — which he did not consult about the Iran War — to authorize a ridiculous amount of new money for military spending in what might well be the most catastrophic political message we’ve seen in years:

With the United States at war with Iran and embroiled in conflicts around the world, the White House said on Friday that it would ask Congress to approve about $1.5 trillion for defense in the 2027 fiscal year. If enacted, that amount would set military spending at its highest level in modern history.

The request, which arrived on Friday as part of President Trump’s new budget, would amount to a roughly 40 percent bump from what the United States spent on the Pentagon this fiscal year. The administration said it would couple the proposed increase with a call for $73 billion in cuts across domestic agencies, including the elimination of some climate, housing and education programs…[Pols emphasis]

In the days before releasing the initial details of his plan, the president and his aides framed the proposed increase for defense in urgent terms, citing a need to restock munitions and other supplies as the war with Iran continues. At one point, Mr. Trump indicated at a private lunch that military spending needed to be a national priority, even at the expense of federal safety-net programs and other government aid, though his budget is not expected to address Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. “America First” wants to gut domestic policy programs in order to pay for military conflicts that nobody outside of Israel wanted and that Americans overwhelmingly oppose.

NBC News has more on Trump’s true feelings about spending priorities:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it’s “not possible” for the federal government to fund Medicare, Medicaid and child care costs, arguing that it should be up to the states to “take care” of those programs while the federal government focuses on military spending.

The president’s remarks were delivered to attendees at a private Easter luncheon at the White House, where Trump also accused Democratic-led states of fraud. [Pols emphasis]

He went on to say that he told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought: “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care. That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care, and they should pay for it too.”

Later in his remarks, the president added that states would have to raise their taxes to pay for child care costs and that the federal government “could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up” for it.

“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” Trump said. “They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”

The White House initially publicized a video of Trump’s remarks at a private Easter luncheon before later deleting it — but not before Bryan Metzger of Business Insider downloaded the file.

It seems improbably that Congressional Republicans might agree to Trump’s budget demands…but they were already considering cutting funding for federal health care programs in order to pay for an earlier budget proposal of $200 billion — a fraction of what Trump wants now. Colorado Republicans such as Rep. Jeff Crank (CO-03) and Gabe Evans (CO-08) have to be hoping and praying that they aren’t forced to take an actual vote on Trump’s proposal.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a poignant comment about Iran’s spending decisions:

“Imagine in Iran that instead of spending their wealth – billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, had spent that money helping the people of Iran. You’d have a much different country.”

Yes, imagine.