President Donald Trump on Jan. 7 proposed increasing the Pentagon’s budget to $1.5 trillion in 2027, saying it would give the United States its “Dream Military” during what he described as “very troubled and dangerous times.”
The call for what would nearly double the U.S. military budget from $901 billion in 2026 comes days after the Trump administration’s operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and oust him from power so he could face drug trafficking and terrorism-related charges in Manhattan court.
The White House has also said it is open to using the U.S. military to take control of the Danish territory of Greenland based on national security concerns, and Trump has suggested he is open to military operations in Colombia to tackle drug trafficking.
Rubio also warned that longtime U.S. adversary Cuba “is in trouble” in the days after efforts to capture Maduro and bring him to New York to face his charges.
“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” he said.
Democrats and Republican deficit hawks will likely raise objections to the defense spending increase, some of whom have previously opposed ballooning the U.S. military’s budget.
Lawmakers have also criticized the Pentagon for consistently failing its annual audits, including for the eighth consecutive year in 2025. The Pentagon said last month that it expects to pass an audit by 2028.
Trump said he was increasing his military budget request by half a trillion dollars because of revenue generated by his global tariffs imposed in 2025. The tariffs face an uncertain future as the Supreme Court prepares a ruling on the president’s imposition of the levies under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a longtime deficit hawk, told reporters on Wednesday that “we’re all wanting to have the best defense we can have in the world, but you know, we’ve also got to be fiscally prudent.”
“We’ll all take everything under advisement. We got another $150 billion into the big, beautiful bill for defense this past year. That was a major down payment on what we need to do to have a strong military and get it rebuilt,” Roy said. “We’ll all talk on the best ways to do that, but obviously, my position’s always been very clear, that we gotta pay for everything as we go.”
The lawmaker added that whatever Congress needs to do regarding spending, “we gotta look at the whole picture and then decide what’s going to be best for the country.”
