President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled his boldest attempt yet to reshape federal spending priorities, proposing a $2.2 trillion budget for discretionary programs that seeks a massive increase in defense spending to $1.5 trillion — a significant increase over the $1 trillion sought for fiscal year 2026 .

The new figure includes $1.1 trillion in base discretionary spending for the Department of Defense and another $350 billion in mandatory spending . The sizable increase for the Pentagon, some 44%, had been telegraphed by the Republican president even before the U.S.-led war against Iran .

The dramatic military buildup comes at a steep cost for domestic programs. Discretionary non-defense spending would be cut 10%, or about $73 billion, according to the White House .

“President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure, to make sure our Nation is safe in a dangerous world,” wrote Budget Director Russell Vought in the budget documents.

The proposal drew quick praise from Republican defense hawks. “President Trump’s budget is truly historic when it comes to defense spending. It is the most robust increase in defense spending in many years, and it is more than justified by the threats we face throughout the world,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Congressional Democrats promised fierce resistance. “Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, promised that Democrats ‘will make sure it never passes.’”

Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued a statement that said, “the vision President Trump has outlined for America in his budget is bleak and unacceptable” .

The military spending request reflects the costs of Trump’s expanding military commitments, particularly the U.S. war with Iran, which is estimated to be costing the country more than $1 billion a day . The Office of Management and Budget is also still reviewing a potential $200 billion Pentagon supplemental package for the current fiscal year that would be on top of Friday’s request as the US carries out its war in Iran .

The White House budget includes $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, 85 new F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp., and a pay raise for troops . Enlisted personnel up to the rank of an Army staff sergeant would get a 7% raise, while top officers would get a 5% increase .

The domestic spending cuts would hit a wide range of programs. Trump proposes a $5 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health’s budget for 2027 , eliminating the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Fogarty International Center, and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health . The National Science Foundation would face a 55% cut to its budget .

The administration’s strategy involves a complex legislative maneuver to circumvent Democratic opposition. The budget suggests $1.1 trillion for defense would come through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval, while $350 billion would go in the budget reconciliation process that Republicans can accomplish on their own, through party-line majority votes .

This two-track approach faces skeptical Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Thursday any additional reconciliation work would be “hard and cumbersome” following the months of painstaking negotiations required to pass last year’s Republican tax-and-spending bill .

The budget proposal arrives as Congress remains mired in a record-setting Department of Homeland Security shutdown that has lasted 47 days . The president’s budget arrives as the House and Senate remain tangled over current-year spending and stalemated over DHS funding, with Democrats demanding changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement regime that Republicans are unwilling to accept .

Notably absent from the budget are traditional 10-year deficit projections. In a departure from decades of practice, the budget did not include 10-year projections for the spending plan’s impact on future deficits, leaving those to an obscure release later in the year . The omission is particularly striking given the nation running nearly $2 trillion annual deficits and the debt swelling past $39 trillion .

The budget contains optimistic economic assumptions. The budget assumes economic activity will increase 3.1% this year, a trend the administration anticipates will continue throughout the rest of the president’s term — well above the 1.8% long-term forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office .

Despite the massive defense increase, Trump’s budget also envisions deep reductions after the proposed 2027 surge: The defense budget would drop by 15% in 2028 and would freeze at less than $1.4 trillion in subsequent years .

The proposal faces an uncertain path in Congress.