President Trump unveiled his FY2027 discretionary budget request on Friday, proposing a $2.2 trillion blueprint that dramatically boosts defense spending while slashing a wide swath of domestic programs, including major research and higher education accounts. The White House requests $1.5 trillion for the military — a $445 billion increase, or more than 40% above planned defense spending for the current fiscal year — even as the U.S. becomes more deeply involved in its conflict with Iran, which the administration estimates is costing more than $1 billion a day.
To help offset that surge in defense outlays, the proposal calls for $73 billion in cuts to domestic agencies — roughly a 10% reduction across programs supporting social services, health, research, housing and education. The document frames the cuts in ideological terms, promising to “eliminate the weaponized rot in our Federal Government once and for all” and to remove what it calls “radical gender and racial ideologies that poison the minds of Americans.”
Federal research agencies would be hit especially hard. The National Institutes of Health would face a $5 billion reduction under the plan, including the elimination of several institutes and centers named in the budget book: the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Fogarty International Center and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The White House argues the cuts are warranted because, in its words, “NIH broke the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”
The National Science Foundation would see its discretionary budget slashed by 55% — from $8.8 billion to $4 billion — with funding for the social, behavioral and economic sciences division terminated. Other research-related reductions include trimming the Advanced Research Projects for Health from $1.5 billion to $945 million, eliminating the U.S. Geological Survey’s Ecosystems Mission Area, recommending elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities, cutting $1.6 billion from NOAA grants for education and climate work, a $5.6 billion (23%) discretionary cut at NASA, and more than $6 billion removed from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cuts to federal education programs total about $2.7 billion for higher education and broader reductions at the Department of Education. The plan seeks an overall 2.9% reduction for the department, including $8.5 billion in cuts to dozens of K‑12 programs and a proposal to consolidate some federal programs into $2 billion “Make Education Great Again” block grants to states. For higher education, the proposal would reduce funding for Minority-Serving Institutions by $354 million, cut the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education by $136 million, eliminate $81 million for International and Foreign Language Education, and slash more than $500 million from the Institute of Education Sciences. The budget also zeroes out federal TRIO programs, GEAR UP and Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, and would reduce federal contributions to Federal Work Study by about 90%, shifting a larger share of student wages onto employers.
One notable exception in the proposal is a substantial increase for Pell Grants: the administration requests a $10.5 billion boost, bringing total Pell funding to $33 billion and setting the maximum award at $7,395 for the 2027–28 award year.
Lawmakers and interest groups reacted predictably along partisan lines. Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R‑S.C.) praised the plan as “truly historic,” while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Democrats “will make sure it never passes.” Sen. Patty Murray (D‑Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the proposal “bleak and unacceptable,” arguing it trades away medical research to fund foreign wars. The Association of American Universities urged Congress to “reject these short-sighted cuts,” while the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Cato Institute criticized the plan for lacking a credible long-term fiscal path.
The presidential budget is a policy road map rather than law — Congress controls final appropriations — and analysts say much of the request is unlikely to survive negotiations. Critics also warned the mix of new defense spending and domestic cuts would still likely add to the federal deficit, which has already been projected at $1.9 trillion for FY2026, as the national debt climbs past $39 trillion. The FY2027 budget begins on October 1, and the administration’s priorities will now face scrutiny in hearings and the appropriations process.