The Trump administration’s latest budget request proposes major expansions to both domestic surveillance infrastructure and military spending, reflecting a broad restructuring of national security priorities across multiple federal agencies. The proposal includes funding for a new FBI-led domestic terrorism center under National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, as well as a Pentagon budget request totaling $1.5 trillion, the largest year-over-year increase in military spending proposed by a U.S. president since World War II.
The budget documents show the administration continuing to build out a federal framework that integrates intelligence gathering, law enforcement coordination, and financial tracking capabilities aimed at identifying individuals considered domestic terrorism risks. At the same time, the administration is requesting hundreds of billions of dollars in additional defense spending while proposing cuts to education, healthcare, housing, climate programs, and scientific research.
According to the source material, the budget allocates funding for an “NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center,” an FBI-led multi-agency initiative staffed with personnel from 10 federal agencies. The center is tasked with identifying domestic terrorism threats and is described in the budget as combating such threats “by integrating intelligence, operational support, and financial analysis.”
The categories of beliefs identified in the budget language are broad and ideological. Among those listed as motivating factors associated with domestic terrorism are “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” “support for the overthrow of the U.S. Government,” “extremism on migration,” extremism on “race,” extremism on “gender,” “Hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,” hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on “religion,” and hostility toward those who hold traditional views on “morality.”
The source material also states that federal officials view online communications as a central concern in domestic threat monitoring. The budget explains: “Domestic terrorists exploit a variety of popular social media platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and encrypted chat applications. They use these platforms to recruit new adherents, plan and rally support for in-person actions, and disseminate materials encouraging radicalization and mobilization to violence.”
The creation of the NSPM-7 framework is described as being influenced in part by the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. The budget references “heinous assassinations” that have “dramatically increased.” Following Kirk’s death, FBI Director Kash Patel publicly stated that the bureau would explore the “possibility of accomplices” and consider outside involvement. The source material reports that Patel later concluded there was no evidence supporting those theories.
Patel also testified to Congress that domestic terrorism investigations had increased substantially under the administration, stating that the FBI was overseeing a 300 percent increase in such investigations. The expansion of investigative activity coincides with structural changes to federal threat monitoring systems. The administration replaced the Terrorist Screening Center, originally created after the September 11 attacks, with a new “Threat Screening Center” designed to encompass a broader category of national security threats.
According to the source material, the new screening system oversees multiple watchlists that distinguish between international terrorist organizations, transnational criminal networks, and domestic threats. The FBI’s domestic terrorism watchlist has reportedly expanded as part of these changes.
These developments follow public controversy over earlier claims that individuals connected to incidents in Minnesota were classified as domestic terrorists, claims that officials later walked back. Despite that reversal, the source material indicates that the administration has continued to prioritize domestic terrorism investigations as a central component of national security policy.
Alongside the expansion of domestic intelligence operations, the administration is requesting a record level of military spending. The proposed Pentagon budget totals $1.5 trillion and includes funding for F-35 stealth fighter jets, Virginia-class submarines, naval shipbuilding, artificial intelligence development for military systems, and a missile defense initiative referred to as the “Golden Dome.”
President Donald Trump described the administration’s priorities in remarks included in the source material: “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.”
The source material indicates that the $1.5 trillion figure does not include additional costs associated with the ongoing Iran war, which may be requested through supplemental funding. Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in 2023 over U.S. arms policy related to Israel’s war on Gaza, described the scale of the budget in an interview included in the source material.
“So, let’s start with that $1.5 trillion budget, which doesn’t include, let’s be clear, funding for the current Iran war. That will come in a further supplemental. So it’s a vast amount of money, and ultimately leveraged against the U.S. debt. We are spending our children’s money to take the lives of other people’s children. That’s what it boils down to. It’s just a vast amount of money in a way that is reckless by an administration that is corrupt.”
The budget proposal also intersects with expanded weapons transfers to Israel. The source material reports that the administration used emergency authority to bypass congressional review of more than 20,000 bombs intended for Israel, many of which would be drawn from existing U.S. stockpiles and later replenished through federal spending.
Paul described the long-standing scale of U.S. military assistance to Israel, stating: “So, Israel has always been by far the largest recipient of U.S. military grant assistance. In President Trump’s budget request, the provision to Israel of U.S. funding comprises 63% of the global available total.”
The source material also references additional arms sales totaling more than $23 billion to countries including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan. According to Paul, the administration invoked emergency authorities to move those sales forward without further congressional review.
In contrast with expanded defense spending, the budget proposes reductions across numerous domestic programs. According to the source material, the administration is pursuing cuts to education funding, healthcare spending, affordable housing initiatives, climate programs, and federal scientific research. The budget includes a 23 percent reduction in NASA funding and a $3.6 billion cut to the agency’s science division, which could result in the cancellation of 40 programs.
Paul described the implications of these reductions for civilian science programs and public research funding, stating: “So, it’s a lose-lose, both for science and for humanity.”
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, also criticized the scale of the proposed Pentagon increase in remarks included in the source material. Weissman described the proposal as “a $500 billion increase, a 50% increase in the Pentagon budget, and a roughly $100 billion proposed cut for everything else.”
Weissman characterized the proposed spending shift in stark terms. “So, $500 billion, it’s beyond the wildest dreams of the military-industrial complex. All it means is buying more weapons for more war.”
Weissman also described how the administration is seeking to use the reconciliation process to move significant portions of the spending increase through Congress without bipartisan approval. The reconciliation process allows legislation to pass with a simple majority vote and cannot be blocked through filibuster.
The source material indicates that additional supplemental funding requests tied to the Iran war could increase total defense spending to approximately $1.7 trillion.
The budget proposal reflects a broad shift in federal priorities across intelligence, law enforcement, and military institutions. It combines expanded domestic threat monitoring authority with increased defense spending and reductions in social and scientific programs, reshaping the allocation of federal resources across both domestic and international policy arenas.
“All it means is buying more weapons for more war.”
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