White House asks for record-breaking $1.5 trillion for defense in 2027 budget request
President Donald Trump pauses as he finishes speaking about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House, in their budget request for the 2027 fiscal year, is asking Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion for defense — a record-breaking military spending request as the U.S. remains in its fifth week of war with Iran.
That is a $445 billion, or a 42% increase from the 2026 total level, according to the White House. Non-defense spending is reduced by $73 billion, or 10%, according to the budget released by the White House on Friday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A newly obtained cellphone video shows the moments before Renee Good was fatally shot in her car in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2026. (Obtained by ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — In the days after federal officers shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, there has been little polling on how Americans are reacting to the issue. But surveys fielded after Minneapolis woman Renee Good was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Jan. 7 found most Americans saying the event was an inappropriate use of force and most voters saying her killing was unjustified.
Polling through the first half of January has found Americans largely at odds with the Trump administration on immigration, with just over half saying ICE enforcement actions were making cities less safe and nearly half saying they do not trust the government at all to carry out a fair and thorough investigation of Good’s shooting.
That is in addition to majorities disapproving of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws, how President Donald Trump is handling immigration and how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has handled her job.
More polling underscores those findings.
A New York Times/Siena poll released Friday found 61% of voters saying the tactics used by ICE had “gone too far.” That included over 9 in 10 Democrats, about 7 in 10 independents and roughly 2 in 10 Republicans. Just 26% of voters overall said ICE’s tactics were “about right” and 11% said they had not gone far enough.
The poll also found roughly half of voters in support of Trump’s deportations and his handling of the border with Mexico.
Just 36% of voters approved of how ICE was handling its job; 63% disapproved.
A Wall Street Journal poll published last week found 54% saying deploying ICE to U.S. cities has “gone too far” and 52% of voters disapproving of how Trump is handling immigration.
Both polls were conducted after Good, a mother of three, was killed by an ICE agent on Jan. 7, but before Pretti, an ICU nurse, was killed by federal agents over the weekend.
The New York Times/Siena poll was conducted Jan. 12-17 among 1,625 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.
The Wall Street Journal poll was conducted Jan. 8-13 among 1,500 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens as President Donald Trump announces the creation of the U.S. strategic critical minerals reserve during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on February 02, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said Monday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, which was detected early, and that she will continue to serve in her role while she undergoes treatment.
“I am grateful to have an outstanding team of doctors who detected the cancer early and are guiding my care, and I am encouraged by a strong prognosis,” Wiles said in a statement. “I am also deeply thankful for the support and encouragement of President Trump as I undergo treatment and continue serving in my role as White House Chief of Staff.”
President Donald Trump said in a social media post Monday that while Wiles undergoes treatment, “she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!”
During an event at the White House on Monday, Trump praised his top aide, saying that she is an “amazing fighter” and will “take care of it immediately,” referring to her treatment.
“She just started actually, and she’s going to be a great shape,” Trump said of her treatment. “The prognosis there is excellent, beyond excellent.”
Wiles has served as the White House chief of staff since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
She didn’t offer any additional details about her prognosis or treatment plan.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in the United States (excluding skin cancers). About 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer.
An estimated 321,910 females will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, the American Cancer Society estimates. An estimated 42,140 women will die.
The construction for the ballroom on the White House’s East Wing as seen from the top of the Washington Monument, Nov. 17, 2025. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — Even before a federal judge has decided whether he’ll halt construction of the White House ballroom, the Trump administration has preemptively asked the judge to stay any injunction he might issue, warning that the project is “imperative for reasons of national security.”
The government’s overnight filing, entered just before the end of the day Monday, also says halting the construction would “leave an unsightly excavation site in President’s Park indefinitely.”
The administration’s stay motion comes a week-and-a-half after Judge Richard Leon publicly aired his deep skepticism of the government’s arguments that the president has the power to build a ballroom with private donations and without express authorization from Congress, comparing the plan to a “Rube Goldberg contraption.” Leon also said he expected the losing side of the case to appeal.
The Justice Department’s filing restates many of the arguments its lawyer made before Leon last month, including the administration’s view that it would be “unworkable” to allow security-related portions of the project to continue while work on the ballroom has been stopped.
“[A]s the Secret Service attested, halting construction would imperil the President and others who live and work in the White House,” the administration argues, citing a senior agency official who said in court papers last month that the current open construction site is, “in and of itself, a hazard and complicates Secret Service operations.”
The government now says it will submit a second classified declaration from the Secret Service that further explains why halting construction “will endanger national security and therefore impair the public interest.”
It’s widely believed the plan is to replace the bunker FDR had built underneath the East Wing — destroyed in the demolition.
The filing also casts the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s challenge to the project as one that presents questions judges have never grappled with before, including whether a 1912 statute prohibiting the construction of federal buildings absent congressional authorization applies to the president.
Acknowledging Leon’s own expectation of an appeal by the losing side, the Justice Department is preemptively asking him to press pause on a potential ruling against the government.
“The D.C. Circuit should have the opportunity to weigh in on these significant and novel issues of first impression before the President is ordered to stop work in the middle of a high-priority construction project that implicates national security,” the filing concludes.
