AFP, Washington :
President Donald Trump will propose drastic cuts to America’s foreign aid and environmental programs in a security-heavy first budget blueprint to be released later Thursday.
In a plan designed to translate bold campaign promises into dollar and cent commitments, the Republican leader will propose a 28 percent cut in State Department funding.
That could be a harbinger of steep reductions in foreign aid and funding to UN agencies, with knock-on effects around the world.
The Pentagon will be the major winner with a nearly 10 percent boost- shoveling more cash toward a defense budget already greater than that of the next seven nations combined.
Separately, around $4 billion will be earmarked this year and next to start building a wall on America’s southern border.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mexico will pay for that wall-which will cost at least $15 billion, according to estimates by the Bernstein Research group, a consultancy firm.
Trump’s broad-brush proposal covers only a fraction of the $3.8 trillion federal budget-which is dominated by healthcare, pension and other baked-in costs.
The text will be heavily revised and fleshed out by Congress, before a full budget is released around May.
In that sense, the plan is as much a political statement as a fiscal outline:
a fact not lost on the White House.
“This is a hard power budget, it is not a soft power budget” said White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney.
The former Congressman said he trawled through Trump’s campaign speeches for inspiration.
The budget is a signal to Trump’s supporters that he is a “man of action” and not a “typical politician.”
President Donald Trump will propose drastic cuts to America’s foreign aid and environmental programs in a security-heavy first budget blueprint to be released later Thursday.
In a plan designed to translate bold campaign promises into dollar and cent commitments, the Republican leader will propose a 28 percent cut in State Department funding.
That could be a harbinger of steep reductions in foreign aid and funding to UN agencies, with knock-on effects around the world.
The Pentagon will be the major winner with a nearly 10 percent boost- shoveling more cash toward a defense budget already greater than that of the next seven nations combined.
Separately, around $4 billion will be earmarked this year and next to start building a wall on America’s southern border.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mexico will pay for that wall-which will cost at least $15 billion, according to estimates by the Bernstein Research group, a consultancy firm.
Trump’s broad-brush proposal covers only a fraction of the $3.8 trillion federal budget-which is dominated by healthcare, pension and other baked-in costs.
The text will be heavily revised and fleshed out by Congress, before a full budget is released around May.
In that sense, the plan is as much a political statement as a fiscal outline:
a fact not lost on the White House.
“This is a hard power budget, it is not a soft power budget” said White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney.
The former Congressman said he trawled through Trump’s campaign speeches for inspiration.
The budget is a signal to Trump’s supporters that he is a “man of action” and not a “typical politician.”
