‘Gimmicks’: GOP lawmakers slam Trump’s ‘trillion-dollar’ defense-spending proposal

The White House says it has proposed the first trillion-dollar defense budget, but some senators and budget analysts aren’t buying it. “For Defense spending, the President proposes an increase of 13 percent to $1.01 trillion for FY 2026,” White House budget director Russell Vought wrote in a May 2 letter to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee. But that topline relies on funding outside of the normal budget-request process. In the