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PRESIDENT TRUMP SENT the first budget request of his second term to Republican appropriators in Congress on Friday, exposing new GOP divisions on spending.
Office of Management Budget director Russell Vought outlined the steep cuts Trump seeks for non-defense spending in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
"This is a pretty historic effort to deal with the bureaucracy,” Vought told reporters on Friday.
The White House’s “skinny budget” is the administration’s wish list for how they’d like congressional appropriators to proceed, although it's up to lawmakers what goes in the final bill.
Defense spending emerged as an early point of division between congressional Republicans and the White House.
Vought said the White House wants to increase Defense spending by 13 percent, bringing it up to $1.01 trillion. However, the proposal he sent to Congress keeps Defense spending flat at $893 billion with the hopes of boosting it later through a reconciliation bill.
The Hill's Alexander Bolton explains the discrepancy:
"Critics on Capitol Hill argued the Office of Management and Budget plans to meet that target by pulling $119 billion from the pot of money expected to be included for defense in the budget reconciliation bill — the package that will extend the 2017 tax cuts and provide $175 billion for border security."
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Armed Services Committee, blasted the proposal as insufficient.
“President Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda, but his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget were apparently not listening,” Wicker said in a statement, arguing that “leaving military spending flat” is “a cut in real terms.”
"This budget would decrease President Trump’s military options and his negotiating leverage,” Wicker said.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the proposal’s reliance on “a one-time influx” from reconciliation spending an “accounting gimmick.”
“They won’t fool Congress,” McConnell said. “The correct response to the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests in decades is not a fifth straight budget request that proposes a real-dollar cut to the U.S. military."
Collins said she has “serious objections” to the proposed defense spending and other parts of the budget, including proposed cuts to a low-income home energy program, student services programs and biomedical research.
“Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse,” she said in a statement.
MORE BATTLES LIE AHEAD
The divisions underscore the difficult task that lays ahead for GOP leaders in Congress, who must wrap Trump’s agenda into “one big, beautiful bill” that can overcome intraparty divisions and get past narrow majorities in both chambers.
Republicans are trying to cut taxes, lower the deficit and reduce spending, all without opening themselves up to political attacks over cuts to social safety net programs.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee delayed a key vote on its portion of Trump’s legislative priorities this week amid disagreements among Republicans over potential cuts to Medicaid.
The debate pits moderate Republicans in swing districts against conservatives in deep red parts of the country. Democrats are ready to pounce on the issue in the midterm elections.
And Republicans in high-tax states say they won’t vote for any funding bill that doesn’t increase the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.
More highlights from Trump's budget proposal:
• It would reduce nondefense discretionary spending by $163 billion, or 22.6 percent, with tens of billions shaved from the National Institutes of Health and Housing and Urban Development.
• It would eliminate some development and international affairs agencies beyond the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
• The budget would make steep cuts to some Education Department programs, including those for the Office of Civil Rights and preschool funding, while boosting spending on charter schools.
• The White House proposed shuttering the disinformation offices and programs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, alleging they censored Trump and his supporters.
Read the full budget request here.
?Perspectives:
• JD Vance: What Trump accomplished in his first 100 days.
• The Liberal Patriot: The DOGE days are not quite over.
• Whole Hog Politics: How Trump misspent his political capital.
• The Hill: Trump’s first 100 daze.
• CNN: Rubio ascends in Trump’s orbit.
Read more:
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• 11 top contenders to replace Waltz as national security adviser.
• Senate Democrats lament missed chance after tariff vote tumult.
• GOP senators wonder about Hegseth’s future.
• Greene furious over Ukraine minerals deal, Iran talks: ‘The base is not happy.’
CATCH UP QUICK
Tennessee law enforcement released video showing a 2022 traffic stop involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration says the encounter bolsters their claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and was involved in human trafficking.
The Justice Department reached a “settlement in principle” with Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt’s family to resolve a lawsuit they filed over her death on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to end deportation protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans.
ON TAP
Here's who's talking Sunday...
NewsNation's “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.)
NBC's “Meet the Press”: President Trump.
Fox News' “Fox News Sunday”: Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.); Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin.
CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.); Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio); Oksana Markarova, Ukraine Ambassador to United States; Ret. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Former Trump National Security Council Advisor
IN OTHER NEWS
© AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Trump follows through on culture war threats
President Trump is following through on his culture war threats, choking off the flow of funds to Harvard University, NPR and PBS in a flurry of moves.
Trump on Friday said over Truth Social that he’s taking away Harvard’s tax exempt status.
“It’s what they deserve!,” he said.
The Trump administration and Harvard are already locked in a court battle over $2 billion in frozen funds.
Harvard has made some changes to address campus antisemitism and in changing its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. A federal judge on Friday declined to block the enforcement of key provisions in one of Trump’s executive orders involving DEI.
Harvard rejected other demands for an overhaul, accusing the Trump administration of seeking control over its curriculum, hiring practices and leadership.
Trump took a shot at Harvard in his commencement address at the University of Alabama on Thursday night.
“The next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson," he said. "It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide.”
MEANWHILE…
The Education Department announced Thursday it would change the college accreditors process to make it easier for new schools to receive federal funding.
“We must foster a competitive marketplace both amongst accreditors and colleges and universities in order to lower college costs and refocus postsecondary education on improving academic and workforce outcomes for students and families,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
The Hill’s Lexi Lonas-Cochran writes:
“College accreditation is part of the process universities go through in order to receive federal student aid, with an accreditor evaluating everything a school does from class offerings to admission processes…The federal agency is also beginning reviews to add more accreditors to the arena after applications for new accreditors were paused under the Biden administration.”
Also on Thursday, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funds from being spent on NPR and PBS, calling their news coverage “biased and partisan.”
The executive order, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” prohibits the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from sending new funds to the outlets and will “cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law.”
ELSEWHERE…
The Associated Press obtained detailed Army plans for a massive military parade to take place in Washington on Trump’s birthday in June, which would include some 6,600 soldiers, 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters and seven bands.
?Perspectives:
• The Hill: US dietary guidelines have made us ill.
• New York: Pritzker’s total-war message is a hit among angry Democrats.
• Vox: The Trump-approved policy that’s actually good for kids.
• Washington Examiner: Democrats must stop abetting illegal immigration.
Read more:
• Trump taps Dr. Phil for Religious Liberty Commission.
• Trump takes 100-day victory lap at University of Alabama.
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