On May Second, President Trump announced his 2026 Budget Proposal. The bill is considered unprecedented, with over 163 billion dollars of cuts in total, or an average 23 percent cut to non-defense programs. Here, I will go through the specifics of the proposal, and how it affects different areas of government.
Defense:
The Defense budget is notorious for almost never getting cut, and Trump’s proposal is no different. Under the current 2026 budget proposal, defense will increase by more than 113 billion dollars, or a 13 percent increase. Interestingly, this plan has received opposition from many republican lawmakers, who believe that the increase in Defense spending is not enough and just a continuation of current levels.
Homeland Security:
In the budget proposal, there is no doubt that homeland security is the biggest winner, with 42.3 billion dollars more being allocated to the program, or an increase of a whopping 65 percent. There is no doubt that this increase is an attempt to combat illegal immigration, an issue which Trump won in 2024 and has taken drastic measures to curb since. While this will likely have little pushback from mainstream GOP, however will likely face resistance from moderate house republicans looking to keep their seats in 2026, and virtually all congressional Democrats.
State and International Programs (USAID, National Endowments of the Arts, Ect):
Under this proposal, state and international programs take a 49 billion dollar cut, or 84 percent. This massive cut would continue termination of USAID, dramatically reduce other foreign aid, gut the National Endowment of the Arts, and defund Public Broadcasting like NPR and PBS. These cuts would undoubtedly cause lawsuits from those organizations, along with universal condemnation from Democrats, and some traditional Republicans.
NASA:
Despite Trump’s founding of the Space Force and his commitment to advancing space technology for the military (as seen in his proposed defense budget increase), the Trump administration plans to cut NASA by 6 billion dollars or 26 percent. It is not clear how this will impact the program yet, but it underscores Trump’s desire to aggressively cut “wasteful” spending. Still, the cut for NASA is in the middle of the pack when it comes to different programs.
Social Security and Medicare:
During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised that he would never cut Social Security and Medicare. In this proposal, he is staying true to his word, as it does not show a cut nor an increase to either program. This will likely be supported by most Republicans (most notably Missouri Senator Josh Hawley), as many have realized that cutting Social Security and Medicare are simply losing issues. However, it still may face frosty reception from extreme fiscally conservative Republicans. This could include Mike Johnson, who was publicly advocating for medicare cuts up until around a month ago.
While a few programs were given slight increases (Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation) every other program that has not been mentioned would receive significant cuts.
The Big Question:
Will Trump’s proposal pass? Probably not. Democrats and moderate Republicans will oppose the extreme cuts, traditional conservatives would want a bigger spending boost for defense, and the extremely fiscally conservative wing of the GOP would want cuts to medicare and social security. Based on this proposal, it would be very hard to satisfy each of these groups, which means that Trump would likely need to engage in back and forth negotiations with congress in order for it to pass.