WASHINGTON—Budget proposals, especially for the federal government, are political documents—and that was never more obvious than in the spending plan for fiscal 2027, which right-wing, militaristic, and dictatorial President Donald Trump unveiled on April 4. Amidst tirades full of obscenities and threats to carry out illegal attacks on Iran, he demanded Congress give him the biggest military budget in U.S. history.
The bottom line: A 45 percent increase for war and the military in the year starting October 1, with much of it devoted to Trump’s Iran War. Trump’s “War Department” would get $1.5 trillion total, with $350 billion to, as he said, bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. The budget has more than a 10 percent cut in domestic spending, with dozens of programs cut to zero. Mostly, he wants to cut aid to poor people, people of color, or both.
Children will go hungry under Trump’s budget blueprint, says Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union.
Families won’t be able to afford rent or even keep the lights on, she adds. The budget also zeroes out home heating and cooling assistance for low-income people, its documents show. Centers where such services are provided are located in the city of Chicago, including a long-time provider operating at the Unity Center at 3339 South Halsted Street.
“This is not merely irresponsible, it is cruel,” Pringle said of Trump’s spending plan.
Another summing up of the Trump regime’s budget plan came from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Republican-run Senate Budget Committee. That panel will play a dual key role in the coming drawn-out budget fight, where the president proposes, and Congress disposes.
Trump’s budget “is just an out-of-touch plea for more money for guns and bombs, and less for the things people need, like housing, health care, education, roads, scientific research, and environmental protection,” Merkley said in a statement. Trump would cut the EPA by 52%.
Trump’s budget is the opening salvo between Trump and Congress—on both sides of the aisle—over spending priorities. If the conflict plays out like it did for fiscal 2026, which is now almost half over, expect to see another deadlock over the Homeland Security Department.
Trump wants more money for that agency to pay to private prison firms to convert factories into prisons or to build concentration camps for the tens of thousands of people his vicious and violent ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents sweep up.
Congressional Democrats may try to stop camp and prison construction cash. Polls show most respondents call for abolishing ICE.
The budget battle and subsequent ones over actual money bills will also produce a spate of temporary fixes, called continuing resolutions, and potentially another partial government shutdown.
The two congressional budget committees will set priorities for the budget. More importantly, they’ll handle another monster “reconciliation” bill dealing only with taxes and spending in broad categories. Trump wants to lump the $350 billion for the Iran War into that, as reconciliation cannot be filibustered.
And his budget blueprint calls for axing spending for any programs that could help people of color and/or poor people, who need aid the most. It particularly aims at what it calls “woke” programs, a deliberate coded slam at non-white people.
The nation’s two largest unions, the National Education Association and the Service Employees, promptly denounced Trump’s budget blueprint. SEIU, in a BlueSky tweet, blasted the extra hundreds of billions of dollars for the war on Iran.
“Voters are saying it loud and clear: Spend $200 billion on healthcare, education, and communities, NOT war. People want investments that actually improve their lives. This is about priorities. And right now this administration is putting working families last,” the union tweeted.
NEA President Pringle, a Philadelphia science teacher, was more detailed. Her union noted the total cut in domestic spending of at least 10%, including a $3.2 billion cut in the already decimated federal Department of Education. Overall, NEA said, “students and educators need a budget that funds and protects public education, safeguards essential programs, and invests in our communities.
“Trump’s budget…also exposes an administration that utterly abandoned working Americans. This administration is sending an unmistakable message: Students, educators, and working families do not matter,” said Pringle. “This proposal rips even more resources away from classrooms and communities that need them most, while handing more power and privilege to the wealthy and well-connected.”
Among the education programs Trump would ax are full-service community schools–so-called wrap-around schools, a top cause of the Teachers/AFT–teacher quality training, money to improve secondary school education, and increases for institutions that serve minorities.
“This budget attacks efforts to ensure every student, no matter their race, ZIP code, or family income, can thrive…These programs help educators meet the needs of all students,” said Pringle.
Labor Department enforcement, including civil rights enforcement, would suffer under Trump’s spending plan. Like Trump, his Budget Director, Russell Vought, is responsible for most of the federal worker firings in the last year, particularly hates diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Overall, DOL would be cut from $13.3 billion to $9.9 billion (26%).
For the first time, there is no separate line for the National Labor Relations Board, which Trump proposed cutting in fiscal 2026 by a third, to $200 million—its level in current dollars (not counting inflation) equal to that of 2012. Instead, his budget lumps the NLRB in with “other agencies,” and cuts the total for all of them by around 40%.
Worker protection agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, would suffer a combined $234 million cut. And that doesn’t include the $100 million budget for the office that ensures federal contractors follow civil rights laws in their hiring and promotions. It would be eliminated.
Also eliminated: Susan Harwood worker training grants. Trump charged the grants fund for the Laborers Union, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, Farmworker Justice, and the Latino Worker Safety Center, among others. All are “woke organizations,” Budget Director Vought alleged, without proof.
Like prior Republican regimes, Trump’s DOL would “emphasize outreach, education, and assistance—rather than harsh penalties—for employers and workers trying to comply with labor laws and standards, and eliminates overbearing and burdensome regulations.” In past GOP governments, outreach and education often meant giving corporate America a free pass on workers’ rights violations.
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, led by former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican from Long Island, previously trashed environmental rules and findings, including the key one that said EPA had power under its “clean air” mandate to pursue carbon-emitting coal power plants. Now, Trump wants to cut the EPA’s budget by 52%.
“Trump is doubling down on his attacks on clean energy, while even his own voters recognize it’s the fastest, cheapest way to get new energy on the grid during a time when demand is at an all-time high and utility bills are skyrocketing,” responded Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a Steelworkers-co-founded coalition of unions and green groups.
Trump’s budget also devotes an entire section to “eliminating the Green New Deal.” That includes killing all funds for electric vehicle stations, ending a tax break for EV purchases, and defunding other EV programs, including battery construction plants.
The Auto Workers have invested in EV production, in cooperation with the Detroit 3 automakers. Ford, GM, and Stellantis. Managements agreed EV factories would be unionized. Nevertheless, many rank-and-file Auto Workers voted for Trump, believing his promise that they could keep building gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.
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