President Trump on Wednesday said he’s seeking a massive and unprecedented increase in the U.S. defense budget for 2027, lifting the funding for the military trillion to $1.5 trillion.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the higher level of spending would reflect the “very troubled and dangerous times” and allow the country to “build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe.”
Congress authorized a 2026 military budget of $901 billion, with additional funding from the Republican reconciliation bill lifting the total to roughly $1 trillion.
The United States spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined, based on 2024 data, but Trump said he had decided that the surge in defense spending is necessary after “long and difficult negotiations” with members of Congress and others. He claimed that the increased funding would be paid for by revenue from the tariffs he has imposed — and said that if it weren’t for that revenue, he would say the budget should be kept at $1 trillion.
Trump claimed that the tariff income would also enable the government to pay down debt and provide “a substantial Dividend to moderate income Patriots within our Country!” Trump has proposed sending $2,000 tariff rebate checks to most Americans.
The numbers there simply don’t work. The government has been collecting about $30 billion a month in customs duties, which wouldn’t cover the boost to defense spending let alone tariff rebates that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars, leaving no chance of using the same funds for debt reduction.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-profit that advocates for deficit reduction, estimated that a $1.5 trillion defense budget would add $5.8 trillion to the national debt, including interest costs. The group said that the proposed spending increase wouold be about twice as big as projected tariff revenues (see chart below).
Congress would need to approve Trump’s proposed defense budget and congressional appropriators are sure to have their say.
