Trump’s Proposed Military Budget of $1.5 Trillion Raises Eyebrows
Last year, the Republicans in agreement with President Trump raised the military budget by $175 billion against the criticism of some prominent conservatives who wanted the administration to cut spending in the defense sector. Now President Trump wants to inflate the military budget by a whopping 50%, making it $1.5 trillion for 2027. Conservatives have always wanted a strong military for national defense. But does this level of spending amount to going overboard?
Earlier this month, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he wants the 2027 military budget to be $1.5 trillion instead of $1 trillion so that we could have the “dream military” to keep us safe and secure. In his post, Trump stated that he has arrived at this defense budget proposal after consulting with Congressional members, secretaries, and other political representatives. He also went on to justify his proposed raise in the Pentagon budget by citing his policy of tariffs which he credited with bringing in “tremendous income.”
Trump’s proposed raise in the military budget by some $600 billion against the current defense budget of $900 billion was met with a mixed response by critics and analysts. YouTube commentator Ken Cao, a critic of Chinese government and policies, called it a winning move by Trump that can defeat China decisively not only on the military front but also by eroding the international confidence in Chinese strength and stability.
Writing for The Alpena News (January 14), Rich Lowry hailed Trump’s proposed defense budget for 2027 as exactly the thing we need to do and called it a declaration of epic significance. Suggesting some important ways for the military to use it, Lowry concluded his article by stating:
Trump’s taste for gilding everything can be over the top. It’d be a national service, though, if he manages to make the U.S. defense budget golden.
But many conservative and independent commentators and analysts were not amused with Trump’s proposed budget for the military. Tucker Carlson asked why would Trump like such a raise in the military budget and opined that such a jump indicates preparation plans for a regional or global war.
Clint Russell, host of the Liberty Lockdown podcast, posted a clip of Carlson’s show on his own X page and wrote that he believes Carlson is right adding that such level of spending on the military is madness that needs to stop.
President Trump made ending wars a key promise of his presidential campaign but has largely failed to end existing wars while also creating rhetoric of potential war through his actions in the Middle East, Venezuela, and lately over Greenland. In this context, his proposal to jack up the military budget is raising eyebrows within the conservative base. Former Congressman Ron Paul who hosts a podcast criticized Trump’s proposed military budget and said that it amounts to punishing people who will pay for this kind of crony capitalism, pushing the country further into debt.
Independent investigative journalist Elizabeth Lane posted a clip of her interview with former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou to her X page wherein he is seen calling it corruption by the government. Lane reminded that Pentagon has failed its audit eight years in a row. She wrote:
President Trump calls it his “dream military.” But whose dream is this, and why are American taxpayers forced to pay for it?
Just FYI China’s outlays are really about $700 Billion
https://anticommunist.zone/china-spends-massively-more-on-defense-than-we-thought-almost-as-much-as-u-s/
Joe, ex CIA right? And you want us to believe a .zone factoid without secondary sourcing? Do you have any skepticism on this at all? is this .zone site, how is it “vetted.” I know, you know people there since they write for you too, but could it just be self-serving reporting by like-minded folks? On this one, you seem one short step above your protegee Dempsey and his X files of lies. I see a number of your editors there, and this story, by an unnamed editor
On the story: no one that I can see supports a $700B Chinese military budget beyond Dan Sullivan who has voiced this same number since 2023 in defense of his bill to get Congress to make DOD increase the accuracy of their estimates. I am not going to pooh-pooh Sullivan, but his sources are what he called a classified intelligence meeting that he said the info was not classified. But no other support on where the number comes from for over two years.
. The author states: “Senator Dan Sullivan, echoing findings from US intelligence agencies and the prominent Swedish defense think tank, SIPRI. This assertion is staggering, especially when juxtaposed against China’s reported defense budget of less than $300 billion.”
SPRI, yeah, we accepting Swedes on defense, sure, no neutral source, or Chamberlains there….
SPRI estimates $318B for Chinese budget, not $700B. Sullivan did not say the number came from SPRI. That seems a mistake, a lie, or both.
China says $247B for 2025, a 7% increase over 2024. $231B for 2024 which was a 7% increase over 2023. While we can be sure that’s not the number, since, like us, they have all sorts of off-budget and other tricks. Ours is called “foreign aid,” where we account for it as aid, and Israel uses it for defense. It’s our dollars and is spent on defense, but we account for it as aid. but $250 to 700 is a big difference and I would think Joe would need more that “some meeting over two years ago” to say: yeah, sure.
Most experts come in at $318B to $470B in 2024, not $700B. Actual spending, as in off—budget items also is estimated at:
SIPRI (2024): Estimated $318 billion.
Texas National Security Review (2024): Estimated $474B (using World Bank data).
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (2024): Estimates place it between $318B and $471B billion, citing underestimation in official figures.
We spend close to $1T for defense.
Let’s look at freinds and enemies, and I will go high for any enemy estimates. .
China: let’s go with $500B; Russia: $150B; NK; $4B, India: $86B, Iran: 8B, worldwide terrorist sponsorship: $120B (a real swag and may decrease places like Iran.
And some friends: Germany: $88B, UK: $82B, France: $65B, Japan: $55B, Israel: $47B
Bad guys, plus five = $871B. USA $1T (before Trump) Good guys, plus five: $ 1.33T.
How you can need more money seems fiscally imprudent since we already spend too much, have a lot of waste and bad accounting practices, and could probably do much better for less than we even spend today.
On the numbers.
We stand to lose more on smaller affairs but think we can destroy most of the world, if needed. More smart weapons for urban warfare, guerrilla and terrorist actions, but pretty sure we are covered for regional or world wars. Our takeover would most likely be from within, not a full assault from beyond our shores. . Think we have that covered with the sub missiles alone.
If I were King, I would task DOD with doing a better job for 10% cut while proving they have rooted out waste and fraud to result in stellar auditor reports. Given more money into rampant waste and probably fraud seems imprudent at this time. Now. put a no-fly zone over Ukraine and I would change course and give them an increase, just not Trump’s.
Remember, if you build it, they will come (or find a use for it).
But the $700M seems high, outdated, and without sufficient support.
Sorry Joe, I should add Sullivan, who married into politics, nothing wrong with that, is a very smart and capable guy who served his country with honor. He knows the military, the law, economics, and a lot more I am sure. He has the best education. I do not agree with many of his views and opinions, but he’s the real thing earning our respect.
This number smells bogus though in support of his bill, which seems like a good idea at a high level. I mean who can argue with greater accuracy. Based on what I just wrote, obviously not me :>)
How about you, still think $700M is rock solid?
This is reminiscent of what Reagan did to collapse the Soviet Union. My only concern is this increase needed to buy smart weapons for a very real threat to us that the public doesnt know about? Also after having been affiliated with the military for about 50 years and have seen many cases of fraud waste and abuse of funding in that time I have to ask what kinds of safeguards are going to be put into place to make sure the American public doesnt get ripped off worse that the were are in Minnesota?
Namer: my stomach says you are wrong about Reagan, but Horist’s berating me caused me to relook and you are right; Reagan not only spent them into the ground, but even his stupid, failed SDI initiative became the foundation of our modern missile defense system. But at what cost? Prior to Reagan, we spent 35 years from WWII to Reagan to pay down that debt. They are The Greatest Generation and Reagan was not. He began running deficits, put us into a 1-year recession, that’s long, and put us on today’s trend that only BIll Clinton fought against. No other President. Reaganomics slashed taxes, add massive defense spending and took us from $79b deficits to $175B. He tripled the national debt in two terms. Bush was forced to raise taxes to cover the shortfall knowing it would end his Presidency. I like Bush more and more as time goes on. A true American hero AND a born-rick guy — very rare and non-existent today.
So yes, Reagan’s defense spending helped bring down the Iron Curtain, but it also put us on the debt-trail we continued, except for Bill Clinton, to this day.
Trump has no Iron Curtain to defend against. He cannot outspend China, but he can out-deficit them. As someone noted, the Pentagon is the paragon of waste, fraud, and corruption mostly due to the big bucks and aggressive schedules. Project 2025 calls for a 3% budget increase but massive restructuring to gain efficiencies and effectiveness. I concur and could live with 1% since it’s my contention you could cut the budget 10% and not miss a beat. When you have enough nukes to end it all, many times over, I think we have the global deterrent. What we need is smaller, smarter, weapons, and people to man them, for smaller, regional conflicts that might include a lot of innocents on the field. A different conflict. Cyber warfare may be more important in the short term than nuclear warfare for example.
Since Trump has no plan, no strategy, I think giving him more money is not prudent at this time. Let him solve healthcare and build some new airports, bridges, and tunnels first. Nobody wants this, not even Projecdt 2025. Tell Steven Miller and the drunk Hegseth to take a hike.
Art of the Deal, ask for more, get what you can. I’m so tickled at so many, ya’ll haven’t figured the man out yet. Hell, he wrote how to do it, and still many don’t get it.
Big A; yeah, sure, art. If this guy could structure a deal, we wouldn’t have tariffs. We would have better healthcare than ObamaCare. We might have a new airport, some bridges, maybe a tunnel or dam.
Big A; the only “DEAL” this guy has is based on screaming and overwhelming advantage like when he “deals” himself his own Nobel. And fucking keeps it. He kept someone else’s noble when it will never be his.
Some dealmaker.
All hat, no cow. Hey, how’s his shining deal: the Abraham Accords going? Didn’t it go bust post Gaza? How many of our enemies are in it now? That’s a good deal?
Mostly he’s slapped his name on stuff, big whoop.
Everyone knows, just give him a shiny toy and some words on parchment, a few million in crypto sales, and you can deal yourself whatever you want.
Ok Dunger. What did retard joe Biden do? Absolutely nothing. Trump is getting things done and you lefties can’t handle it. Boo hoo.
Willieatsdungandhesmiles: do you judge everything based on Biden or just Trump?
Trump being better than Biden does not necessarily make it good.
To everyone posting here. Everyone one of us is always wrong according to the Dangerous idiot. HE is the only one that right – every single day. We are stupid idiots and never get anything right. He makes us think we don’t belong on here or even to live. My question is: where did he get the permission to berate anyone and everyone that hurts us deeply. Who does he think he is? The President? President of nothing! I am sick of hie hate and unrelenting nastiness. Yeah, today I am nasty and I will not stop! Not until he formerly apologizes to everyone.