With much of the world and the American public focused exclusively on tariff mania, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled huge news on Monday that would normally have made a bigger impact in the headlines.
The Pentagon is about to have its first $1 trillion budget. President Trump said while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House: “Nobody has seen anything like this. We have to build up the military and we are very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build and we have to be strong.”
But ironically, the announcement comes as the administration has aggressively sought to root out government waste and overspending. The reality is that for decades, both parties have allowed defense spending to spiral out of control. This appears to continue, and the big winner remains the military-industrial complex, even amid the DOGE crackdown.
Hegseth also made the announcement on Twitter, sharing a video of Trump praising the upcoming trillion-dollar budget. “Thank you, Mr. President! COMING SOON: The first TRILLION-dollar [Defense Department] budget,” the Pentagon chief said.
Although the Department of Defense (DoD) has never had an official budget that reached this amount, the actual cost of U.S. military spending has exceeded $1 trillion for several years in a row.
Biden’s 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) totaled $895 billion, so a trillion seems like the next natural progression given the uncontrollable nature of defense spending.
Commenting on the possible timeline for the 2026 budget rollout, Breaking Defense writes:
Exactly when the 2026 budget will be finalized or what shape it will take remains unclear. There has been talk of a “skinny budget” with few details at first, and rumors that the budgets will be officially released in May, but nothing has been confirmed by the White House or the Pentagon.
TD Cowen analyst Roman Schweizer wrote in a note to investors that “based on last year’s green paper, we expect this to mean a $50 billion increase for 2020 defense, up from the $951 billion projected for the FY26 request.”
Critics of US foreign policy have ripped Trump for this move. For example, independent geopolitical analyst Tim Anderson writes: “Add another trillion to the US debt. None of Washington’s budget cuts have reached the Pentagon, which does exactly nothing for US “defense.” The US military only intervenes in other countries.”
