Matt Picht
Germany Says It Wants To Bump Up Its Defense Spending â Eventually
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country will do more to meet NATO expectations for defense spending.
LEARN MOREFebruary 27, 2017
President Trump says he has a plan to significantly boost military spending: across-the-board cuts to other parts of the government.
"This defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government. We're going to do more with less," Trump said during his address to the National Governors Association meeting.
The U.S. currently spends about $596 billion on its military — that's more than the next seven most expensive militaries combined. Trump reportedly wants to bump that number up almost 10 percent with a $54 billion budget increase.
Politico notes the Obama administration had already slated a $32 billion military increase for 2018. It's not clear whether that increase factors in to Trump's $54 billion figure.
That money's supposed to come from the budgets of other non-security federal agencies and programs. Specifics haven't been made public yet.
Several anonymous officials told outlets to expect heavy cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency's $8.3 billion budget, as well as the roughly $42.4 billion we spend on foreign aid.
The approximately $1.5 trillion we spend on Social Security and Medicare, on the other hand, won't be touched by these cuts.
Trump will send his formal budget proposal to Congress in March.
