On Friday, President Donald Trump released his skinny budget plan for fiscal year 2026, outlining his administration’s plan to reduce the federal government’s overall spending while increasing funding for border security and the military. If enacted, the budget would amount to the lowest non-defense spending since 2017 while codifying in law some of Trump’s most critical early executive orders.
A president’s “skinny” budget is a brief, initial version of the federal budget proposal that details top priorities and proposed spending levels, usually submitted early in the budget process. While lacking the detailed line-item breakdowns found in the full budget, it serves as an important policy statement that helps drive final negotiations.
“Over the last four years, government spending aggressively turned against the American people and trillions of our dollars were used to fund cultural Marxism, radical Green New Scams, and even our own invasion,” said Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, when explaining the importance of Trump’s skinny budget. “No agency was spared in the Left’s taxpayer-funded cultural revolution.”
In total, Trump’s plan would cut non-defense spending by $163 billion, or 23 percent, compared to fiscal year 2025. Defense spending would see an increase of 13 percent, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees border security, receiving a $43.8 billion funding increase.
The breakdown in border security funding includes “$500 million for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expedite the removal of illegal aliens through the support of 50,000 detention beds, $766 million to procure cutting-edge border security technology funding, and funding to maintain 22,000 Border Patrol Agents and hire additional Customs and Border Protection officers for a total of 26,383 officers.”
The plan additionally eliminates funding from programs and initiatives that abetted illegal immigration. These cuts include $890 million from the “English Language Acquisition” program that de-emphasized English as a primary language, $729 million from the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act grant program that provided free education and job training to illegal aliens, $650 million from the Shelter and Services Program that provided hotels to illegal aliens, and $3.5 billion from programs that facilitated migration to the United States and instructed new arrivals on how to game the asylum system.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem further praised the president’s plan for cutting funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have facilitated illegal immigration.
“These NGOs spent hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars trafficking illegal aliens across the United States, including paying for cell phones, hotels, and flights. All while coaching illegal aliens on how to manipulate U.S. immigration regulations to remain in the U.S. and escape deportation,” Noem wrote on X. “Their Biden-funded campaign to destroy our country ends today.”
Along with increasing funding for DHS, Trump’s budget also calls for a spending increase of $113 billion at the Department of Defense. This spending includes a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense system, supporting “U.S. space dominance,” funding improved aircraft, protecting the border, and providing service members with a 3.8 percent pay raise.
The administration also says that its plan will end “wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on woke climate and DEI programs and redirects resources to support the warfighter.”
Beyond changing funding levels, the budget process is also a crucial opportunity for congressional Republicans to enshrine Trump’s sweeping changes to the federal bureaucracy into law. This includes Trump’s efforts to eliminate far-left ideologies like Critical Race Theory and radical gender theory, as well as so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) from federal spending.
Some examples of DEI spending items Trump’s budget would eliminate include $315 million for preschool development programs that promoted “racial equity” and “LGBTQIA+” lessons to toddlers, $77 million from programs that trained teachers in critical race theory, DEI, social justice, and white privilege, and $600 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s “environmental justice” program.
The budget would also officially cut funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for projects such as “‘Net Zero Cities’ in Mexico, promoting political participation in LGBTQI+ communities around the world, and ‘family planning’ abortion services in places such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Africa.”
A major component of the budget plan is the elimination of all initiatives that promoted the “Green New Deal,” which the budget labels as the “Green New Scam.” These cuts include $15 billion “purposed for unreliable renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and other costly technologies that burden ratepayers and consumers” and $6 billion “for wasteful and ineffective EV charger programs.” Additional cuts target research grants for left-wing climate goals.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas praised the president’s budget plan on X. He has had a contentious relationship with Trump in the past, but his vote will be instrumental with the GOP’s slim majority in the House.
“I strongly commend President Trump, OMB Director Russ Vought, and the entire White House team for releasing a truly transformational budget that maintains strong funding for our national defense while reducing the weaponized and wasteful bureaucracy by 20 percent to better than pre-COVID levels,” Roy said. “This budget re-aligns federal spending to the priorities of the people: a secure nation, making America healthy again, a Justice Department combatting crime and not weaponized against the people, and common sense.”
Despite the magnitude of what Trump and congressional Republicans hope to accomplish through this one budget bill, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he hopes to finalize and pass the entire package over just the next three weeks.
With the 2026 midterm elections now clearly on the horizon, Republicans have no time to waste. The budget reconciliation process will likely be the GOP’s final opportunity to pass major legislation without having to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The success or failure of Trump’s second-term agenda could well hang in the balance.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
While all Presidents submit their annual budget requests to Congress, Congress has a long, long history of largely ignoring those requests and instead passing whatever budget is the most expedient and least upsetting to maintaining the status quo for the members of Congress. All of whom are largely focused solely on their next re-election campaign. Which means Congress is where all sorts of budget reforms and much needed spending cuts go to die.
Most of us have been around long enough to see how the modern congressional budget process of the last 30 years usually plays out over and over again. In general, Congress likes to talk big about doing budget reforms and cost savings. However, when it comes to the rubber hitting the road and actually crafting a federal budget that matches the congressional rhetoric, Congress usually ends up blinking and we end up with the usual, bloated and massively expensive CR delivered to the President’s desk at the last possible second as members of Congress race out of town.
So, while President Trump’s budget request to Congress may be a good first step towards reining in the out-of-control spending of the federal government, getting Congress to actually follow through and pass something that closely aligns with the President’s request will be a very tall order. Just look at how Congress is currently mishandling the much simpler and easier to do reconciliation bill. The American people have to continually apply maximum pressure on members of Congress for everything, if we want to see anything done right.
It’s up to the woke progressives on the left. Are they for the people and America or just against Trump for him not to succeed. That is where they are at. Their communist manifesto, pro Chinese, pro war, anti white, pro trans, pro DEI, pro CRT, open border policies is no longer wanted by 73% of the people. This budget should pass its good for the country and its citizens. Will they find their conscience, however, or has Satan taken it over?
The Congress has BETTER pass this, or term limits and being voted OUT OF OFFICE are definitely coming!! These people have NOT been working for the American people and that time is up. Thanks to Newsmax and other non-traditional media gaining influence, we are now being told the TRUTH about what is going on in a bloated federal government. I don’t expect change overnight, but passing this budget is a MUST. And, Congress, start passing budget recissions instead of taking so much time off!!!
President Trump is doing a great job, he loves this country! There are so many enemies in the United States he must deal with! The news media are liars the Democratic Party are liars and enemies to America and the American people!
I am not sure Congress knows that armed forces and border security are the primary responsibility of government , too many are refusing to do the job they were elected to do.In privatye sector they’d be out as they should be.
Just hope the administration looks favorably on the ‘other’ military branch, the U.S. Coast Guard! I have not heard of budget numbers for the service but they get washed by Homeland Security so it’s anyone’s guess what they will do. With the mission tasking and add-ons the service has seen, the budgets have been woefully inadequate but I hope that is about to change. EMG USCG Retired
At least the funding being increased is for items that are actual responsibilities of the Federal government. All funding for programs and projects that aren’t NATIONAL in both purpose and scope should be eliminated, not just cut. We have been increasing the national debt for matters that are no business of the Federal government. Excessive spending by state and local governments is much easier to control.
I voted for President Trump!
I agree totally with his policies.
He has done more for America in 100 days than Obama/ Biden or Biden / Harris did in 12 years.
All I can Say is: BE PATIENT! IT WILL GET BETTER!
It’s no surprise even when we told where most of money was being spend! Much of it was weaken our country and encourage a weak economy by sent some of to corrupt politicians in their bid for office! Thanks to Elon Musk and Doge Team we know some of truth but there more to learn!
What happened to the two judges accused of aiding illegals to stay in this country
I hope the House can speed things up and actually get the spending bills voted on before the deadline! Please, no more CRs of hundreds of pages which NOBODY has read! DO YOUR JOB!
No need to contribute to the conversation when so many excellent comments have already been posted.
apply DOGE cuts to Budget
put an end to the systematic population replaceent plans of financing muslims having absurd huge families at our expense living on our social security
Amazing! A Fed budget to actually benefit Americans, not penalize them! ALL the DemoKKKRAT efforts to weaken this country including the “open borders” and “Green New Deal” scam are being swept away. America IS becoming great again!
Until the waste and corruption are removed for the DoD, there should be NO increase in their budget. Cut the waste first.
Congress and Members of Congress need to follow The President’s Lead on This One, or “suffer The Consequences” From WE THE PEOPLE!!!
Our military is horrifically wasteful and must be held to account by DOGE. That said, we must ensure they have the very best training, equipment, intelligence, tech, and weaponry on Earth.
I call it “Grim New Deal”.
Yep, gotta send that “defense” budget up past a trillion a year so as to better provide Israel with free munitions to slaughter women and children with. Oh, and to also restart the funding of a literal Nazi regime in Ukraine in their fight in a war our State Department started in 2014 with a coup we funded and organized. President Trump keeps “misleading” his people by stating the conflict is “Bidens War”, when during Trumps first term he spent billions upon billions arming and training those lovely Nazis in Ukraine so they could better slaughter their own ethnic Russian people and to better rob the Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine. Biden may have continued to pump weaponry into Ukraine and brought us waaaay too close to a nuclear conflict but in a number of ways the Ukraine conflict is indeed Trumps war and the 1.7 million and growing dead Ukrainians are on Trumps conscience ever bit as much as it would be on Bidens if that creep was still capable of having a conscience. One can also blame Obama as it was under that creatures watch that the coup was plotted, funded and hatched, but Obama left office in early 2017 and it was St Trump of Queens that built up and fortified the Ukra-Nazis until leaving office in 2021 only to now, despite promising not to on the campaign trail, resume supporting the Nazi regime in Ukraine and that laughable green clad grifter of a President of theirs. What a dog and pony show we were presented with in that laugh riot that occurred with Trump, Vance and Zelensky. The little green clad fellah fake yelling at Trump and Vance while Trump and Vance fake yelled back. What a clown show.
So yep a lot of bloviating is being spewed about returning industry to America when everyone knows that is all but impossible, certainly in ours, our childrens and their childrens lifetimes. We havent the energy infrastructure, the rail infrastructure, the highway and bridge infrastructure and most importantly we have allowed our youngest members of society to believe that everything should be handed to them and that work is beneath their pampered presence. Who is going to man all the assembly lines? Little parents basement dwelling 35 year old Johnny? Hahahahhahahaa. Watch and see. Any time now we are going to kiss and make nice with China and Amazon and Walmart can rest easy as their supplies will once again be at the ready. Trump will spew out something about having “forced” a “big most beautiful deal” onto the Chinese and then we will await whatever comedy show Trump will provide next.
And yep, keep sending hundreds of billions to RTX for fresh Patriot Air Defense Missiles even though Russia has repeatedly proven they simply don’t work and while south of Ukraine the Houthis of all people are showing the baby killers, I mean, the Israeli’s that they don’t work either. Its not about “defense” or “offense”, its about filling the wallets of campaign donors and St Trump of Queens is proving he is not above stooping that low.