Trump to propose $54B increase in defense budget

On Friday, the White House excluded several major USA news organizations, including some it has criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary.

President Donald Trump will ask Congress to cut funding from the EPA and Department of State to boost defense spending, according to senior administration officials. A reduction in foreign aid also appears to be in the budget proposal to help pay for the increase.

The White House is sending Mr Trump’s proposal to federal departments this week as he gears up for budget negotiations with Congress that often take months to play out. “So we’re either going to win, or don’t fight it at all”.

Donald Trump has said he wants to raise the amount America spends on defence by a record $54bn (£43bn).

“With $20 trillion in debt, can you imagine that?”

He will be the first President since Harry Truman in 1951 to skip the dinner – a usually light-hearted event where White House officials mix with Washington correspondents. It’s not clear whether that increase factors in to Trump’s $54 billion figure. The ceiling for nondefense discretionary spending is $515 billion. The administration is not expected to proposed changes to entitlements.

Trump’s budget assumes annual economic growth of 2.4 percent, the second official said.

USA president after United States president has made similar promises upon coming to office, before delving into a text that runs in the thousands of pages and tossing the plan into the thicket of Congress.

Trump added that savings can be found in the Pentagon budget by renegotiating military contracts. “And it does all of that without adding to the now projected FY 2018 deficit”. “A cut this steep nearly certainly means cuts to agencies that protect consumers from Wall Street excess and protect clean air and water”.

He added that the budget would send a “message to the world in these risky times of American strength, security and resolve”.

“We have to start winning wars again – when I was young, in high school and college, people used to say we never lost a war”, the president told the governors. “That’s going to be reflected with the number we send to the State Department”.

The budget blueprint, which will outline in the clearest terms to date what Trump’s policy priorities will be as president, fits with Trump’s pledges to increase defense spending and cut government waste as a candidate.

The officials requested anonymity because the draft budget had not been made public yet. But with all eyes on healthcare, the budget’s details will be telling. I understand the criticisms on both sides up on the Hill, that’s fine, but that’s not who this budget is targeted to.

“Great detail tomorrow (Tuesday) night”, the president promised.