Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Friday outlined sweeping cuts targeting “woke” and “wasteful” spending in his first budget blueprint since he returned to power, while boosting defense and border security. Republican Trump aims to cut non-defense discretionary spending across the federal government by a massive $163 billion — or 22 percent — in 2026 as he digs in on the conservative, cost-cutting drive led by billionaire Elon Musk.
Trump would also carry out widespread cuts to health, education, science and climate, and to foreign aid, even as he hikes funding for the Pentagon past $1 trillion. But the president’s so-called “skinny budget” is not binding and is more of a wishlist — while it faces bitter opposition from Democrats who branded it a “gut punch” for Americans. The White House described the plan as a “pretty historic effort” to reshape the federal government.
“It is woke and it is wasteful, and dividing us on the basis of race and identity in the country and honestly weaponized against it,” a senior official from the Office of Management and Budget told reporters. The White House was “joined at the hip” with Musk’s DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, on the cuts, the official added. The White House provided an entire fact sheet on cuts to “woke programs,” saying it was “eliminating radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans” and countering “cultural Marxism.”
But many of the proposed cuts would target scientific research, climate monitoring, and health agencies. The National Institutes of Health — the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, which Trump’s administration accused of promoting “dangerous ideologies” — would see its research budget slashed by nearly half. Despite seeking a 26 percent cut to the overall healthcare budget, the proposal sets aside $500 million for controversial Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s signature “Make America Healthy Again” plan.
There would also be cuts to space agency NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others. Trump’s budget would meanwhile continue the shuttering of the US Department of Education — a long-held dream of right-wingers who want individual states to dictate policy on schooling.
And it would formalize the closure of the US international development agency USAID, dramatic cuts to which have already been widely criticized around the world. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said taxpayers would no longer be “sent to unaccountable NGO’s overseas to fund programs that do not serve our nation’s interests.” The boosts for the Pentagon and Homeland Security, however, reflect Trump’s national security policies.
US defense spending would rise 13 percent to what the OMB official called “truly historic” levels comparable to those last seen under Republican president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Homeland Security spending would rise a giant 65 percent as Trump cracks down on what he calls an “invasion” of undocumented migrants. Together the spending boost would “at long last, fully secure our border,” OMB chief Russ Vought said in a letter to Congress accompanying the budget proposal.
Trump’s “skinny budget” is a summary of more detailed proposals expected later this month. Republican lawmakers will use it as a guideline as they begin drafting the 12 bills Congress has to clear each year to fund the government, but his proposals are not binding. Congress holds the power of the purse and ultimately determines federal spending through the legislative process.
Republican leaders are already struggling to pass what Trump has called a “big, beautiful bill” for sweeping tax cuts. The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, hailed the budget plan as a “bold blueprint.” Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said his party would “fight this heartless budget with everything we’ve got.” “Donald Trump’s days of pretending to be a populist are over. His policies are nothing short of an all out assault on hardworking Americans,” Schumer said in a statement.
© 2024 AFP
