Feb. 24, 2026, 12:23 PM EST

President Donald Trump loves a big number. Last year, even as Elon Musk’s DOGE was hacking away at alleged inefficient and fraudulent federal spending, Trump proposed a record-breaking $1 trillion defense budget. Even though the budget Congress passed fell short of Trump’s proposal, the almost $900 billion authorization was still the biggest ever. Even so, Trump said in January that his next proposal number would be 50% higher than the last one.

Among many, many other problems with a $1.5 trillion Defense Department budgetone in particular stands out: The military has no idea what it would do with that much money. That’s not hyperbole, based on a recent report from The Washington Postciting sources who spoke anonymously to characterize internal matters. Trump’s extragavent proposal is apparently causing a delay in the White House’s annual budget proposal:

Since Trump agreed to the higher number, White House aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges about where to put the money, because the amount is so large, the people said. The White House is more than two weeks behind its statutory deadline to send its budget proposal to Congress, in part because it is unclear how precisely to spend the additional $500 billion, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Senior Pentagon officials have consulted with former senior defense officials as they grapple with the challenge, said one person familiar with the matter. Part of the discussion centers on how much emphasis should go into buying weapons the military already uses versus investing in high-end technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that the Pentagon envisions as part of its future.

An agency being flooded with more cash than can be reasonably spent in a year wouldn’t be the worst problem in the world. But when that agency is the Pentagon, which can already act as a budgetary black hole, it becomes deeply worrying to learn that Trump wants to turn a massive fiscal firehose its way. Trying to give that much more money to an agency that’s already overfunded says a lot about Trump’s misplaced priorities.

There are four major buckets within the DOD budget that the new funding could go toward: operations and maintenance, military personnel, procurement, and research and development. It’s apparently not clear, though, which areas would benefit most from such a sudden surge in money. The administration’s own National Security Strategywhich calls for drawing down U.S. involvement in Asia and the Middle East, makes it even more confusing to imagine what that much surplus could be spent on.

Though Trump announced a desired $1.5 trillion budget on social mediaaccording to the Post, the idea came from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shares the president’s obsession with optics.

“We are rebuilding the arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth told Lockheed Martin employees on a Texas assembly line building F-35 fighter jets. (The Trump administration  recently sold a number of such jets to Saudi Arabia.) Tellingly, Hegseth said the staggering top line is “a message to the world” and that the funding would be used “wisely … [to] make sure we’re squeezing everything possible into the best capabilities in the world.”

Hegseth emphasized the massive budget request at a factory building the U.S. military’s most expensive and overbudget plane. And as for his claim that the money would be used wisely, let’s not forget that the Government Accountability Office says the Defense Department is the “only major federal agency that has never gotten a ‘clean’ audit opinion (i.e., when auditors find that financial statements are presented fairly).”

The amount of money that already disappears into the Pentagon’s maw is troubling enough without adding $500 billion on top of it. Consider that White House budget chief Russell Vought, as head of the Office of Management and Budget, has overseen the process of firing tens of thousands of federal employees and tried to slash billions in life-saving government programs from the budget. According to the Post, Vought was one of the main members of the administration to push back on Hegseth’s pitch, but to no avail.

We should all hope that that whatever budget Hegseth sends to the Pentagon gets drastically reduced before Congress makes it law. It’s ridiculous and discouraging to see the Pentagon be handed more money than it knows what to do with at a time when even a small percentage of that new spending could change millions of Americans’ lives for the better.

Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.

Feb. 24, 2026, 1:35 PM EST

With the U.S. massing forces within striking distance of Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Tuesday with the “Gang of Eight,” a group of party leaders in the House and Senate customarily informed by the White House when military attacks are imminent.

Rubio was briefing the senior lawmakers hours ahead of the President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, with tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program looming over the speech.

Typically, presidential administrations will let the group know ahead of major military actions, such as the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the direction of former President Barack Obama.

The Trump administration, however, has not briefed the group in advance of recent military operations, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January (the group was briefed afterward), the killing of top Iranian general in 2020 and Operation Midnight Hammer last summer, in which U.S. forces bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.

The decision to brief these senior lawmakers now signals that any action against Iran the administration is weighing may be more substantial.

The current Gang of Eight consists of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee; and Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Jim Himes, D-Conn., the chair and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressional Democrats have expressed concern that Trump is circumventing the War Powers Actthe federal law that requires the president to obtain congressional approval before committing armed forces to combat.

Last week, Schumer underscored in a statement that Congress alone has the power to declare waradding that “the administration has yet to articulate to Congress and the American people what the objectives or strategy would be for any potential military campaign against Iran, let alone what it would mean for the lives of American service members or the costs for American taxpayers.”

The U.S. and Iran have been in fragile negotiationsin recent weeks regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Trump has also called for regime change in Iranafter widespread unrest in the country, and publicly clashed with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Each has threatened the other with military action.

The Pentagon sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, and another aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as other U.S. military assets to the region ahead of a potential attack. Iran has warned that it will retaliate if threatened.

CORRECTION(Feb. 24, 2025, 2:42 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that President Donald Trump was slated to brief the “Gang of Eight” on Tuesday. The briefing is being held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and is not on Trump’s official schedule.

Erum Salam is breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram.