Trump Administration to Request $1 Trillion Defense Budget, Leaning on Reconciliation Funds

US President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US

Trump Administration to Request $1 Trillion Defense Budget, Leaning on Reconciliation Funds

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has announced plans to request a $1.01 trillion national defense budget for fiscal year 2026 — a historic high that relies heavily on reconciliation funds currently being negotiated in Congress.

The administration's budget request, unveiled Friday in its "skinny budget" outline, seeks to boost defense spending by 13% over FY25 levels. However, more than $113 billion of that total would come from mandatory funding included in a Republican-backed reconciliation bill, rather than from traditional discretionary defense funding.

Without those reconciliation funds, the base request for discretionary defense spending stands at $893 billion — effectively flat from FY25 and consistent with projections made during the Biden administration. The reconciliation funds, typically spread over four years, appear set to be mostly concentrated in FY26 under Trump’s plan.

This approach has already sparked criticism from Republican defense hawks.

“The administration is not requesting a trillion-dollar budget. It is requesting a budget of $892.6 billion,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “President Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda, but his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget were apparently not listening.”

Wicker argued that the proposed defense budget represents a fifth consecutive year of stagnant military spending in real terms. He criticized the administration for using the reconciliation bill — which he says was meant to overhaul defense priorities like the Golden Dome missile shield, border support, and unmanned systems — as a stopgap to cover a weak base request.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, echoed those concerns, saying she had “serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) also voiced alarm, saying the base budget "does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability needed" to meet Trump's defense goals. He emphasized the need to push defense investment toward reaching 5% of GDP, especially to strengthen NATO commitments.

A senior administration official defended the strategy, noting that a larger increase in nondiscretionary defense funding could have triggered demands from Democrats for equivalent boosts to non-defense programs. The official insisted that using reconciliation in this way was always part of the plan.
Priorities in the FY26 Budget

According to the White House, the FY26 defense budget aims to:


Strengthen homeland security and sovereignty


Deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific


Revitalize America’s defense industrial base

Key investments include early funding for the Golden Dome missile defense shield, upgrades to U.S. shipyards and shipbuilding infrastructure, support for the F-47 sixth-generation fighter, and modernization of space and nuclear systems.

Roman Schweizer, defense analyst at TD Cowen, called the plan “not as good as hoped,” but noted it still points to an increase in defense spending — contingent on the reconciliation bill’s passage.

“If Senate Democrats reject the proposed cuts to non-defense programs, we may end up with another full-year Continuing Resolution,” Schweizer warned in a note to investors.
Reconciliation Bill in Motion

The budget announcement comes as Republican lawmakers finalize a massive Trump-backed reconciliation package aimed at reshaping federal spending. The process allows Republicans to bypass a Democratic filibuster with their narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

Earlier this week, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees advanced a $150 billion defense reconciliation bill, featuring major increases for shipbuilding, munitions, and missile defense systems. The House Armed Services Committee passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House Budget Committee to be consolidated with other reconciliation items.

Last month, Trump previewed the trillion-dollar milestone during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We also essentially approved a budget…in the vicinity, you’ll like to hear this, of a trillion dollars,” Trump said. “Nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build our military…because you got a lot of bad forces out there now.”
New National Defense Strategy Launched

Alongside the budget rollout, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the launch of a new National Defense Strategy (NDS), which will guide the Pentagon’s strategic priorities.

The NDS will be led by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who helped shape Trump’s first-term defense strategy.

“The NDS is the single most important document to ensure the Department is operating in accordance with the President’s and my intent,” Hegseth wrote in a Pentagon memo. He directed that a final draft be submitted by August 31, 2025.