{"id":394150,"date":"2026-01-08T00:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394150\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T00:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:53:09","slug":"donald-trump-calls-for-50-increase-in-us-defence-spending-by-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394150\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump calls for 50% increase in US defence spending by 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n

Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n

Donald Trump is set to ask US lawmakers for $1.5tn in defence spending, an increase of more than 50 per cent on the current year\u2019s record budget of $901bn. <\/p>\n

The dramatic increase would enable the US to build a \u201cdream military\u201d and would be paid for by tariffs, the president said on Wednesday in a post on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of Tariffs, and the tremendous Income that they bring,\u201d he added, \u201cwe are able to easily hit the $1.5 Trillion Dollar number\u201d.<\/p>\n

The huge proposed increase in defence<\/a> spending comes as Trump has increasingly used the military to achieve his foreign policy goals during his second term. <\/p>\n

US forces on Wednesday seized a Russian oil tanker<\/a> in the Atlantic Ocean over alleged sanctions violations, days after a vast operation to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. <\/p>\n

The White House on Tuesday stepped up rhetoric about taking control of Greenland, saying \u201cutilising the US military\u201d<\/a> was among the options the president was considering.<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday also said he would \u201cnot permit\u201d US defence companies to issue share buybacks or dividends until they responded to his call for military equipment to be produced more quickly and reliably. <\/p>\n

He singled out contractor Raytheon, saying: \u201cEither Raytheon steps up, and starts investing more upfront Investment like Plants and Equipment, or they will no longer be doing business with Department of War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump later issued an executive order directing the defence department to add clauses to contracts with military suppliers preventing them from linking \u201cexecutive incentive compensation\u201d to \u201cshort-term financial metrics\u201d. <\/p>\n

The order also called for provisions blocking share buyback and dividends \u201cduring a period of underperformance\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009insufficient investment, or insufficient production speed\u201d as determined by defence secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

Trump said the $1.5tn budget figure had been reached following negotiations with lawmakers and other political representatives. <\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A 50 per cent increase in defence spending would likely stir concerns about the sustainability of the government\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Budget Office, Congress\u2019s fiscal watchdog, estimates the budget deficit will be 5.5 per cent this year \u2014 a level that is lower than in recent years but which many economists believe is unsustainable.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s tariffs helped lower the deficit in 2025, the CBO anticipated in November that they would only raise $2.5tn over 11 years \u2014 about $230bn a year \u2014 a sum far lower than the projected $500bn rise in defence spending.<\/p>\n

The president claimed proceeds from the trade levies covered the increase and still enabled the US to reduce the national debt and pay a \u201csubstantial dividend\u201d to middle-income Americans. <\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Christian Davies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-394150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}