March 1, 2026
That $1 trillion budget is one of the main reasons why the US military is the strongest in the world and the reason why Trump is able to conduct massive operations like the one in Iran. And now – President Trump says that peace through strength is going to cost American taxpayers even more next year. Trump is expected to ask congress to increase the military budget to a historic $1.5-trillion. But where is all that money going? Why does the military need $500 billion more than it already has? And what about that golden dome? What’s happening with that?
Ok – before I tell you about all this stuff included – and not included in the unclassified spending plan from the department of defense-slash-war. You need to know this is the spending plan for the *extra* $150-billion the Republicans gave the pentagon in the big beautiful bill. That has been the big unknown since last summer. Obviously– Democrats were not happy about that extra money because they believed the regular defense budget which was already about than $900 billion was enough. But at the time President Trump said it was necessary to get the defense budget over a trillion dollars for national security reasons and to arm, train and bolster our military and to build his golden dome. The republicans agreed and awarded the pentagon that money. But they also said the pentagon had to submit its plan for how it was going to spend that $150 billion by August of 2025. Well –surprise! That didn’t happen and Democrats – and even some Republicans — were like – where’s the spending plan – and for months…crickets. Finally just last week the pentagon came through with the plan. But there are still holes in it and after seeing this $150 billion spending plan — the highest ranking Democrat on the budget committee senator said there’s one glaring problem with Trump’s new $1.5 trillion budget request… Senator Jeff Merkley says the defense department is “struggling to identify ways to justify such a dramatic increase” he said “for an administration that claims to be ‘the most transparent in American history,’ it shouldn’t take congressional pressure to release an unclassified version of its reconciliation spending plan. Congress has a constitutional duty to follow the money. And at a moment when the administration is planning to propose a $1.5 trillion defense budget—the largest in American history— transparency and oversight are more essential than ever.”
So let’s follow the money…
First of all – the Trump administration has completely changed course and now says they are going to spend that entire $150 billion from the big beautiful bill – this year fiscal year. Originally, the Trump administration said they would spend that money over the next few years. But now – not so much. So – what’s the rush? Well the pentagon didn’t really say but we know that President Trump wants to build more ships– including the new Trump class ships. In fact — shipbuilding is the single largest budget allocation in this spending plan. Almost $30 billion is going towards shipbuilding. But Trump also wants to build more weapons – that’s the second biggest budget allocation and of course wants to build his golden dome which is the third largest. Now – about that golden dome. The drawings Trump has put out make the dome look like this. But when you look at the actual budget allocation you get a different picture of what it really is.
See the big beautiful bill includes only the down payment on the golden dome. That down payment is $24.4 billion …some military experts say when all is said and done – this dome is going to cost more than $3.5 trillion. So when it comes to this the spending plan for the down payment you see what the golden dome really is…. A layered missile defense sort-of architecture – I guess would be the best word for it. It’s an interconnected defense system that includes space sensors and interceptors and satellites and ground radars and lasers. As you would expect – almost 60% of the spending plan for the golden dome is classified and the other majority is still pending approval. So really – we know very little about where that money’s going.
Now – speaking of the golden dome – lots of the systems included – that we can see — are going to rely on AI but that may become problematic when the defense department just blacklisted one of its key ai contractors anthropic. And the loss of Anthropic’s Claude may be an issue because there are almost $10 billion– allocated in this spending plan for things like “unmanned maritime systems” and “one-way attack drones with advanced autonomy” and even just using AI to help build those ships and munitions trump wants.
The other key program that President Trump talks about a lot is the next gen fighter jet known as the F-47 – as in the 47th president. That jet is in this spending plan too but almost everything about how the pentagon is spending the $400 million allocated to that program is classified. All the plan says is the money is going to be use specifically for production acceleration – meaning speeding up the timeframe for getting that jet made and in the air as scheduled in 2028. Just so you know — this is on top of the reported $20 billion contract Boeing was awarded to build this jet.
The plan also calls for $7.5 billion to be spent on quality of life. What’s that? Well – this spending plan allocates money for the brave men and women who serve in our military. It includes money for housing and healthcare and childcare and tuition assistance and bonuses for highly skilled military members who the government wants to keep in the service…all of which are important and necessary. But one small little thing I should point out. Remember that warrior dividend of $1,776 that Trump said he gave to our military members around the holidays? He said that money came from tariffs. It didn’t. It actually was allocated by congress in the big beautiful bill as a housing allowance for military members. And it’s right here in the spending plan.
