Trump tells Congress to double down on spending cuts in 2026

With President Donald Trump calling the shots, Congress might get serious about spending cuts for the first time in a long time, Cedarville University economics professor Jared Pincin says. The White House revealed its annual budget proposal on Friday, calling for aggressive spending reductions in the next fiscal year. The budget proposal puts intense pressure on lawmakers to find spending cuts that Republicans have promised.

“The devil is in the details. But I don’t know that I can remember a time where they’ve actually cut spending—like actually cut spending,” Pincin said.

On its own, the budget isn’t binding and only gives suggestions to Congress for how to spend taxpayer money in the next fiscal year.

Trump’s wish list includes a 22 percent cut to nondefense spending. The only increases requested are $175 billion for border security and an additional $113 billion to the Department of Defense’s topline budget. Overall, the plan calls for a record-breaking 13 percent increase in spending on national security, exceeding a total of $1 trillion for the first time in that area.

Pincin said the cuts seem to follow reductions in spending made by the Department of Government Efficiency. The White House has already stopped funding for most of the federal programs on the chopping block even though Congress appropriated money for them this fiscal year.

These cuts would not affect nondiscretionary spending on entitlements such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. Even so, Democrats expressed alarm at the scope and size of the cuts.

“Twenty-three percent—it could go up to 35 percent,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told WORLD. “It is just a total decimation of federal resources. Take a look at the Health and Human Services [Department], okay? Unbelievable cuts in that area.”

The president’s budget would add $500 million to a Make America Healthy Again initiative, but it calls for substantial cuts to other HHS programs. The White House wants to axe $17 billion from the National Institute of Health and more than $3 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Trump administration has also requested record-breaking additions to government funding for homeland security and defense. If implemented, the request would up the budget of the Department of Homeland Security by 65%. When asked if the House would support that size of increase, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said it would. And there would be support for more, too.

“Look, I’m a defense hawk. More, please,” Cole said of the defense spending. “It does beef up defense spending pretty substantially and moves it in the right direction. Happy to see the increase; happy to see the restraint in other areas.”

In the Senate, defense hawks have accused the White House Office of Management and Budget of using gimmicks to inflate the number. OMB Director Russ Vought wrote on May 2 that part of the defense increase will be funded from the 2025 reconciliation process. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote in a statement on Friday that the request retains a fifth year of the baseline defense budget that the Biden administration used, which amounts to a decrease in real money when accounting for inflation.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, released a statement calling the president’s budget late and concerning.

“I have serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face,” Collins said.

Other Republicans are worried about when Congress will stop adding to the bottom line. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., came close to voting against a budget blueprint for Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” citing spending concerns. McCormick noted that even if Republicans implemented all of Trump’s suggestions, they would still only address a small slice of the country’s overall spending problem.

“Remember, nondiscretionary [spending], if you discount the military, makes up about 10% of the budget,” McCormick told WORLD on Tuesday. “So we’re cutting 24% of the [non-discretionary] budget—that’s 2.4% of the [total] budget. Where are the savings coming from?”

Pincin, the professor from Cedarville, said that Trump’s suggestions to Congress are a sign he’s taking fiscal responsibility seriously this time around—or at least more seriously than he did during his first administration. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the first Trump administration added as much as $8.4 trillion to the nation’s debt. Pincin said Trump knows he can’t expect to add anywhere near that level of debt and maintain the support of fiscal conservatives in Congress.

“He’s starting to look at his long-term legacy. What will this look like not just 10 years down the line but 50 years? He’s not a fiscal conservative like you would say Rand Paul is,” Pincin said, referring to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a constant advocate for reining in government spending.

Paul declined to comment on the budget request, saying he has not yet fully reviewed it. On Tuesday, the Senate appropriations committee kicked off a busy hearings schedule to analyze the proposal. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is slated to testify before the committee on Thursday.

What’s in the budget request

Here are some of the major changes Congress is expected to debate in the president’s budget proposal.

• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): The president’s budget calls for a $4 million cut to this aid program. Trump has said he will unleash American energy and lower energy costs, but he also called LIHEAP unnecessary. The budget says that states already have policies that prevent low-income households from having their utilities cut off. It also points out that New York and California are the top two recipients of LIHEAP funding.

• TRIO: This is a group of eight Education Department programs that give assistance to low-income students seeking post-secondary education. It includes Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers, and Talent Search. But the Trump administration calls them “a relic of the past.” Instead, the White House takes the position that access to college is not the obstacle for low-income students that it used to be. The budget also claims that the program has funneled taxpayer dollars into “woke ideology” taught by colleges that receive TRIO funding.

• Homeland Security: The Department of Homeland Security is slated for an additional $43 billion, amounting to a 65% budget increase. The budget says this will be used for the president’s mass deportation plan, finishing the construction of a border wall, improving border security technology, and enhancing Secret Service operations.

• Defense: Another increase is slated for the Defense Department. The White House is requesting a $113 billion increase, or 13%. This will bring the 2026 budget appropriation to $1.01 trillion. But appropriators have complained that this is actually a freeze, not an increase. It will use some funds from this year’s budget reconciliation.

• State: The State Department would see the most drastic cut of 84%. That includes permanently closing the U.S. Agency for International Development. The budget request ends federal contributions to global health and family planning programs that have been used to fund abortions. It would only leave an emergency AIDS relief program and infectious disease prevention programs running.

• Media: The proposal could completely cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the U.S. Agency for Global Media, leaving just enough money to shut them down permanently.

• Small agencies: The White House also wants to cull 16 programs and 6 regional commissions, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The president’s Department of Government Efficiency has already halted most of those programs, but the budget would make the cuts permanent.

• Housing and Urban Development (HUD): The White House wants to cut nearly $27 billion in housing aid, with the cuts mostly coming from state rental assistance block grants. It wants to turn these programs into state-based formulas instead.