Sen. Mark Kelly Calls Trump Defense Budget Request Outrageous

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona called the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion budget request for defense spending outrageous Sunday.

"They need to submit a defense budget that makes sense for the moment we're in," Kelly said on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

Last month, the administration released its fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, which acts as a starting point for negotiations with Congress over annual spending. The proposal calls for a 42 percent increase in defense spending from 2026 levels.

"When I got to the Senate five and a half years ago, the defense budget was just over $700 billion," Kelly said. "Now they're asking for twice as much money — it's nearly the amount that the rest of the world pays for its defense."

Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said parts of the budget proposal present serious challenges. Beyond a pay raise for troops and restocking critical munitions, the funds would support construction of a space-based Golden Dome missile defense system, among other items.

"There's stuff in there, like Golden Dome," he said. "The physics on that stuff is really, really hard. I'm very confident we're going to spend a lot of money, we're going to get a system that doesn't work."

The White House is also expected to request a supplemental spending package from Congress to cover costs of the war with Iran. A Pentagon official testified at congressional hearings late last month that the war has cost about $25 billion so far. U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments indicated at the time that the total could reach closer to $50 billion.

Kelly voiced concern over the U.S. munitions stockpile during the war with Iran, based on Pentagon briefings that detailed specific munitions.

"I think it's fair to say it's shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines, because this president got our country into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline," Kelly said.

The Arizona Democrat added, "Because of that, we've expended a lot of munitions, and that means the American people are less safe."

"Whether it's a conflict in the western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world, the munitions are depleted," he said.