Trump proposes steep cuts in first budget request of second term
by Alex Gangitano and Aris Folley
President Trump unveiled the White House budget request for fiscal 2026 on Friday, a set of proposals that would make steep cuts to nondefense programs while boosting defense and border funding.
In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought announced the president’s budget would reduce base nondefense discretionary budget authority by 22.6 percent, cutting spending levels by $163 billion.
That would include a roughly $18 billion reduction for the National Institutes of Health compared to fiscal 2025 levels.
The request says the Department of Energy would see a reduction of more than $15 billion from what it described as the “cancellation” of former President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
READ: Trump’s budget proposal for FY2026
The budget also proposes a nearly $25 billion reduction for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with State Rental Assistance Block Grants on the chopping block. It instead calls for the transformation of the rental assistance programs into a “state-based formula grant which would allow states to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences.”
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Vought argued funding for homeland security, veterans, seniors, law enforcement and infrastructure would be protected.
“This is a pretty historic effort to deal with the bureaucracy,” Vought told reporters Friday. “You have heard and seen such action from our administration with DOGE, to be able to deal with the bureaucracy that we believe has grown over many years.”
Vought also touted what he called a “historic” investment of $175 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to implement Trump’s mass deportation and plans to secure the border. He said the nearly 65 percent increase for Homeland Security will lead to hiring ICE agents, funding the border wall and Coast Guard funding, among other boosts aimed to curb immigration.
On the defense side, the administration proposes to increase funding by 13 percent, bringing the total to just more than $1 trillion.
The administration said the budget “assumes enactment” of legislation being assembled by congressional Republicans that is expected to include north of $300 billion in funding for defense programs and advancing Trump’s border and immigration agenda.
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) criticized the defense portion of the budget, saying the OMB “requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms.”
Wicker added that the bill being crafted in Congress to further Trump’s tax and spending priorities was “meant to change fundamentally the direction of the Pentagon on programs like Golden Dome, border support, and unmanned capabilities – not to paper over OMB’s intent to shred to the bone our military capabilities and our support to service members.”
When asked about the criticism, Vought said “13 percent is a very, very healthy increase and we want to make sure that it is going towards capabilities that DoD needs, says it wants, says are vital. And we are changing the way that this place works, and we’re happy to continue to explain that to the Hill. And I’m not surprised that we’ll have to do some work on that front.”
The proposal is Trump’s first budget of his second term, which eclipsed its 100th day earlier this week.
The so-called “skinny budget” is not as detailed as usual presidential budget requests, but congressional Republicans have said they expect more information about the president’s preferred spending direction in the coming weeks. However, some budget hawks are already grumbling about key details missing.
Presidential budget requests are generally considered a White House wish list, with congressional appropriators crafting the appropriations bills that become law. But the proposal is a window into the Trump administration’s priorities at a time when he holds enormous sway over the Republican Party that controls both chambers of Congress.
GOP spending cardinals had also been pushing for the administration’s numbers as appropriators begin to ramp up budget hearings for the next fiscal year.
When asked about Trump’s involvement in creating the budget request, Vought said he was “very, very involved throughout the process” and noted that the “one, big beautiful bill” House Republicans are working through “is really meant to contain the vast majority of the president’s agenda that can be done in reconciliation.”
Vought said the budget reflects the president’s goal to dismantle the Department of Education and that it “has an impact on federalism,” reflected through housing programs that have been turned into a block grant to states.
He said there is a substantial cut to foreign aid, which has been a target of the Trump administration after Elon Musk’s DOGE gutted the United States Agency for International Department (USAID) earlier this year.
Other cuts in the budget include billions of dollars from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the elimination of Job Corps, Preschool Development Grants, the Sexual Risk Avoidance Program, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).
Vought said the budget request calls for reductions to funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) but that it doesn’t include changes to Pell Grants or Head Start programs, which provides early childhood education to low-income families. His comments come as Trump is already facing legal challenges after previous reports that Head Start funding was set to be cut in HHS’ budget amid office closures.
Vought said he got “a very, very different feel this time around” from Republicans on Capitol Hill about this budget than he did when Trump unveiled budget requests during his first four years in office. In terms of how DOGE’s work influenced the budget request, Vought said “we’re joined at the hip, and feel that this is a joint project.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement that the House GOP is ready to work with Trump to implement the budget.
“President Trump’s plan ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects,” Johnson said in a statement. “House Republicans stand ready to work alongside President Trump to implement a responsible budget that puts America first. This budget also reflects the critical role the One Big, Beautiful Bill will play in securing our border and strengthening our national security.”
Vought told reporters the budget does not include the deficit targets or revenue assumptions, which will come “at a later date” while Congress works through reconciliation.
While Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), said the group was encouraged to see the administration put forward a plan that reduces spending, she added in a statement that the request “focuses on only a quarter of the budget over a single year.”
“It remains to be seen what the rest of the President’s proposals will hold, and there is still the multi-trillion-dollar question of whether the reconciliation bill will blow up the debt,” she said, while calling on the president to quickly release a “full budget.”
“We need a budget that tells the full story, and it should control spending, reduce borrowing, bring deficits down to 3 percent of GDP and put the debt on a sustainable path.”
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