8 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
The President's Defense Budget Misses the Mark
The U.S. may have averted war in the Middle East for now, but the international environment is growing more dangerous. In just over a week, Iran and Israel traded missile and drone strikes, U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities, and Iran fired missiles at the American base in Qatar. Meanwhile, China is amassing significant military power, Russia continues to wage a brutal war in Ukraine, and Kim Jong Un has threatened to obliterate South Korea if provoked.
The Trump administration's defense budget is strikingly inadequate to meet the moment. The White House proposed a defense budget of $892.6 billion for fiscal 2026, which is a cut in real terms from the previous year. It highlighted the request as the first trillion-dollar defense budget, but that includes an additional $119.3 billion from the $150 billion one-time increase from Congress' reconciliation bill now under consideration. According to Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, even with the bonus, the administration's proposal would leave the U.S. with a defense budget of only 2.65% of gross domestic product by 2029.
