Seoul Gazette - Trump eyes huge 'woke' cuts in budget blueprint

Republican Trump aims to cut non-defense spending by a huge $163 billion -- or 22 percent -- in 2026 as he digs in on the conservative, cost-cutting drive led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump would also massively cut foreign aid even while stepping up defense spending to $1.01 trillion and pouring money into homeland security as part of his anti-immigration drive.

But the budget proposal is more of a wish-list at the start of Trump's second term and he faces a bitter battle in Congress, with Democrats calling it a "gut punch" that hammers health and education.

The White House said that many of the proposed cuts stemmed from the radical efforts by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to slash the US government.

"We're joined at the hip with DOGE," an official from the White House's Office of Management and Budget told reporters in a call on condition of anonymity.

"This is a pretty historic effort to deal with the bureaucracy," the official said. "It is woke and it is wasteful, and dividing us on the basis of race and identity in the country and honestly weaponized against it."

The White House provided an entire fact sheet on cuts to "woke programs", saying it was "eliminating radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans" and countering "cultural Marxism."

Trump's budget would also confirm the blow to foreign aid that his administration has already delivered since his inauguration in January.

It would formalize the closure of the US international development agency USAID, dramatic cuts to which have already been widely criticized around the world.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a link to the budget proposal on X, saying that thanks to Trump "common sense leadership has been restored."

"For far too long, Americans have had little to no return on their investment. Their tax dollars have been sent to unaccountable NGO's overseas to fund programs that do not serve our nation's interests. That's over," he said.

- 'Heartless' -

The boosts for the Pentagon and Homeland Security however reflect Trump's national security policies.

US defense spending would rise 13 percent to what the OMB official called "truly historic" levels comparable to those last seen under Republican president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Homeland Security spending would rise a giant 65 percent as part of Trump's policy priority of cracking down on what he calls an "invasion" of undocumented migrants.

Together the spending boost would "at long last, fully secure our border," OMB chief Russ Vought said in a letter to Congress accompanying the budget proposal.

The so-called "skinny budget" is often described as a wish-list that comes ahead of full budget proposals later in the year that must be agreed with Congress.

But it is a revealing summary of Trump's focus in his new term, in which he has already sought to reshape the US government in his image.

The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, hailed it as a "bold blueprint."

But Republican leaders are already struggling to pass what Trump has called a "big, beautiful bill" for sweeping tax cuts.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said his party would "fight this heartless budget with everything we've got."

"Donald Trump's days of pretending to be a populist are over. His policies are nothing short of an all out assault on hardworking Americans," Schumer said in a statement.

V.Bae--SG