Trump to raise defense spending by US$54 bln
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E-mail Xinhua, February 28, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to increase U.S. defense spending by 10 percent, or 54 billion U.S. dollars, White House revealed Monday.
The money to boost military building-up may come from deep cuts to almost every non-security category, including foreign aid and domestic discretionary programs, according to White House officials.
"This budget will be a public safety and national security budget," Trump said at a bipartisan gathering of U.S. governors at the White House Monday morning.
"We will increase security and we will decrease lower-priority programs. Most federal agencies will see a reduction as a result," the conservative Washington Times newspaper quoted an Office of Management and Budget official asking anonymous as saying.
Trump's plan will also call for hikes in spending on homeland security, intelligence, the Department of Justice and law enforcement, said a Politico report, quoting another unidentified senior official as its source.
Trump will propose "dollar for dollar cuts" elsewhere, the official said.
So far few details were provided on how the cuts will be made and over what time period they will be implemented.
On Friday, Trump pledged that he will oversee "one of the greatest military buildups in American history."
"We will be substantially upgrading all of our military, all of our military, offensive, defensive, everything. Bigger and better and stronger than ever before," Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Also last week, White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon said that the Trump administration set the "deconstruction of the administrative state" as one of its top goals.
The White House is scheduled to send its preliminary funding targets for 2018 to federal agencies Monday. These agencies will have an opportunity to respond to the White House draft and appeal before the administration sends its formal budget request to Congress.
On Tuesday night, Trump is expected to address the Congress, laying out his policy priorities for the coming months.
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