Trump's 2026 Request Forces Disastrous Cuts
Fiscal Year 2026 Request at a Glance
This is not a budget. It is President Trump’s annual appropriations request. Not only is it three months late, but it also covers less than one-third of all federal spending.
A budget would lay out the rest of the Republican agenda and include the additional $7 trillion in deficit-exploding tax giveaways to billionaires. A budget would include the at least $1.5 trillion in cuts to mandatory programs that Republicans are trying to dismantle, including $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. Instead, this is a hit list of programs the Administration does not like, highlighting their misplaced priorities and tipping their hand for where they want to inflict the most damage.
The Administration presents the request as holding defense funding steady and cutting non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding by nearly 23 percent for 2026.
TRUMP BUDGET SLASHES NON-DEFENSE SPENDING BY 23%Billions of dollars | ||||
| 2025 Enacted | 2026 Request | Dollar Change | % Change |
| Discretionary “Topline” | 1,613 | 1,450 | -163 | -10% |
| Defense | 893 | 893 | 0 | 0% |
| Non-Defense (NDD) | 721 | 557 | -163 | -23% |
| Includes amounts for previously enacted "emergency base" spending in 2025. Excludes amounts for disaster relief, program integrity, Cures, Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and other emergency funding. Totals may not add due to rounding. | ||||
Request Doubles Down on Betrayal of Hardworking Americans
President Trump’s request inaccurately counts additional direct spending in the 2025 reconciliation package as discretionary spending for 2026. Accepting this miscounting at face value, the request claims it is holding discretionary spending steady for 2026, with a more modest decrease of 17 percent to NDD and a $119 billion increase (13 percent) to defense spending. Providing a 13 percent increase to defense is essentially giving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a blank check.
TRUMP MISCOUNTS DIRECT SPENDING IN RECONCILIATION TO HOLD DISCRETIONARY “TOPLINE” STEADYBillions of dollars | ||||||
2025 Enacted | 2026 Request | 2025 Reconciliation | Request + Reconciliation | Dollar Change | % Change | |
| Discretionary “Topline” | 1,613 | 1,450 | 163 | 1,613 | 0 | 0% |
| Defense | 893 | 893 | 119 | 1,012 | 119 | 13% |
Non-Defense (NDD) | 721 | 557 | 44 | 601 | -119 | -17% |
| Total may not add due to rounding. | ||||||
Setting aside the blurred lines between the request and the new spending included in the separate reconciliation package, President Trump’s 23 percent cut to NDD spending is deep, harmful and will be felt by everyone:
- Eviscerating 84 percent from the Department of State and other international programs will force closures of embassies and consulates, making us less safe internationally. It will continue the administration’s erosion of our international partnerships, not to mention remove essential services to Americans, including those traveling, living, and stationed abroad.
- Imperils our role as the world leader in technological and scientific research with cuts of 56 percent at the National Science Foundation and 24 percent to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Gutting the Environmental Protection Agency by 55 percent forces American families to suffer through dirty air and polluted water so Republicans can line the pockets of polluting corporations.
- Rips away housing assistance for vulnerable Americans, including the elderly and persons with disabilities, with a 44 percent cut at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- Slashing 35 percent from the Department of Labor and 15 percent from the Department of Education eliminates job training programs for dislocated workers, youth, and older workers, and continues President Trump’s plot to eliminate the Department of Education by gutting funding that helps school districts across the country hire teachers and educate our children.
- Cutting 33 percent at the Small Business Administration and 18 percent at the Department of Agriculture further harms Main Street and Rural America, already reeling from President Trump’s tariffs.
- Slashing 26 percent from Department of Health and Human Services threatens critical services that keep Americans safe from disease, risks mental health services, and imperils research into cancer, dementia, strokes. Elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and programs that support pre-school will raise costs for families and make it harder to keep a roof over their heads.
- Gutting 19 percent from the Department of the Treasury, primarily from the Internal Revenue Service, helps President Trump’s billionaire donors avoid paying the taxes they owe and will increase the deficit.
Trump — and This So-Called “Budget” — Can't Be Trusted
In a mere 100 days, President Trump has trashed the strong economy he inherited from President Biden. For the first time since 2022, the economy shrank with first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracting by 0.3 percent. President Trump’s erratic actions — from tariffs to firing tens of thousands of federal employees — prove that he cannot be trusted on the economy. The President’s insistence on jamming through budget-busting tax cuts for billionaires proves he cannot be trusted on fiscal responsibility. This proposal to slash vital investments proves he cannot be trusted to protect Americans’ health and safety and lower costs. President Trump’s funding request is yet another reminder that the Republican party couldn’t care less about hardworking Americans.