President Donald Trump will call for a substantial increase in military spending and look to safeguard Social Security and Medicare from any cuts in his first major step toward compiling a budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday.
The White House on Monday will issue the outlines of a budget proposal to federal agencies, a document that has largely been drafted by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, the official said.
The budget outline will also call for spending cuts to several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
The announcement will come a day before Trump’s joint congressional address on Tuesday, where he is expected to lay out his agenda and legislative priorities.
The New York Times first reported the details of the budget outline.
The announcement will come a day before Trump’s first joint congressional address on Tuesday, when he is expected to lay out his agenda, legislative priorities and budget proposals in greater detail.
Trump is first expected to address the budget outline when he meets at the White House on Monday with governors from around the country.
The broad strokes of the budget proposal described Sunday to CNN are in keeping with Trump’s policy proposals during the campaign, when he called for substantial hikes to military spending and vowed to protect Social Security and Medicare.
The proposed cuts to agencies like the EPA also do not come as a surprise. Trump often railed against what he described as the agency’s burdensome regulations and has vowed to slash regulations throughout the federal government, a plan he has argued would be an even bigger boon to US businesses than a tax cut — which he also hopes to deliver on. His pick to lead the EPA, former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is a climate change skeptic who waged legal battles against the agency in his previous role.
