President Trump proposes $163 billion in cuts for 2026 budget

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - President Donald Trump has unveiled his 2026 federal budget blueprint, which calls $163 billion dollars in cuts to non-defense spending.

The White House released the proposal, which it’s calling the president’s “skinny budget,” on Friday morning.

The cuts in non-defense programs are a roughly 23 percent reduction in non-defense spending. It includes the elimination of programs that the istration says are “woke,” including programs for education, housing, climate funding and health research.

It also calls for more spending for the military and border security.

It would formalize many of the cuts that DOGE has already made this year.

The proposal goes to Congress, which needs to approve and the federal government spending bill.

Some praised the proposal like House Speaker Mike Johnson who said on X that the plan “ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects.”

But it also drew backlash from some of the president’s own party including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) who said in statements that the proposal does not devote enough funding to the military.

“...I have serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face and to the proposed funding cuts to – and in some cases elimination of – programs like LIHEAP, TRIO, and those that biomedical research," said Sen. Collins in a statement.

“President Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda, but his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget were apparently not listening,” said Sen. Wicker in a statement. “For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden istration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real .”

Several Democrats came out against the proposal and said that it favors billionaires and will hurt working families.

“Republicans promised to lower costs on day one, but this reckless budget scheme will raise prices across the board and devastate our children, families, seniors and law enforcement,” said House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in a statement.

“This is an incredibly callous budget that puts the burden, on to everyday Americans through massive cuts to things that people would be pretty surprised to hear are are being proposed to cut, like education funding, clean water and cancer research, while at the same time pushing a very large and expensive tax cut for people at the very top,” said Michael Linden, former Senior Advisor to the Biden White House’s Office of Management and Budget and the director of the liberal political action group, Families Over Billionaires.

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