Americans are increasingly linking their country's high military budget to a lack of funding for social services. "Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!" is a common chant at anti-war demonstrations across the country.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced a proposal for a new military budget of $1.5 trillion, the most in modern history, which would break all previous records by around 47 per cent.
Days earlier, he said at an Easter lunch that there wasn't money in the federal budget for healthcare and childcare programmes.
"‘Don't send any money for daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They'll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up," he said.
"It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place…You have to let states take care of them," Trump continued.
It was a startling public acknowledgement, though the content of the message was not a surprise to many Americans who have been invoking the discrepancy at demonstrations and town halls across the country, a sentiment that has been gaining ground since the Iraq War and has gained momentum again with Trump's multiple foreign bombing campaigns, most recently in Iran .
"The administration is asking for a 10 per cent reduction in domestic spending. The trade-offs are crucial, that we're spending money on wars we can't win," David Frank, professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab .
Trump's $1.5 trillion proposal is about a 47 per cent increase over previous budgets. There are currently three different budget requests. The largest is $1.1 trillion, another is $350 billion, and a third is $200 billion, specifically for the US-Israeli war on Iran . It is estimated that the war on Iran will cost $2 trillion, similar to the total for the Iraq war. The Office of Management and Budget says in its fact sheet on the budget that part of the high cost is due to keeping up with technological advancements. However, the administration hasn't provided specific details on what this would entail.
This new budget proposal is in addition to similar trade-offs for what many see as domestic militarisation with the One Big Beautiful Big, passed in June, which cut social services, including healthcare, and earmarked $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including $75 billion specifically for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"We have so many things that are wrong with this administration. The most recent to me is an unnecessary war in Iran, perhaps a distraction from the problems with the Epstein files," Richard Ivanhoe, a demonstrator at a weekly anti-Trump demonstration in front of San Francisco's Tesla dealership, told TNA .
As for the new military budget proposal, he said, "It's ridiculous. The United States spends more than anyone else. We don't need more money going to the military. We need more money going to the people that live in this country. Healthcare, childcare, education, housing."
"I'm worried because we have a Congress that doesn't stand up to him like it should. It's just insanity," he added.