President Trump's 2026 Budget, Gloomy Economic Outlook, Secretary of State's New Role

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What are the key proposals in Trump’s 2026 budget?

Ayesha Roscoe 0:02
President Trump proposes major cuts to federal spending.
Scott Simon 0:05
Part of the White House's budget plan for next year.
Ayesha Roscoe 0:08
But any spending will have to be approved by Congress. I'm Ayesha Roscoe.
Scott Simon 0:12
And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News.
Ayesha Roscoe 0:18
The budget plan was announced after the economy shrank during the first three months of this year.

How does the economic outlook look amid budget cuts?

Scott Simon 0:23
But job figures announced this week were better than expected. What do these mixed signals tell us about the state of the economy? We'll have the latest.
Ayesha Roscoe 0:32
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio has added a new role to his portfolio. He's now the National Security Advisor after Mike Waltz was moved aside.
Scott Simon 0:42
How could one official holding two top posts affect foreign policy? Please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.
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There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here and maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's On the Media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Ayesha Roscoe 2:02
President Trump has issued his first budget proposal since returning to the White House.
Scott Simon 2:06
He wants to slash spending for many federal agencies, but increase spending for defense and border security.
Ayesha Roscoe 2:13
The president's spending plans are expected to run into strong opposition in Congress, which will need to approve any budget.
Scott Simon 2:20
NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben joins us. Danielle, thanks for being with us.
Daniel Estrin 2:24
Thank you, Scott.
Scott Simon 2:24
What do you see standing out in this budget?
Daniel Estrin 2:27
Well, first off, it would make some big cuts to non-defense spending. It would cut those by nearly one quarter. Now, that is a big category. It includes education, transportation, scientific research. So it's a deep and broad swath of cuts. And then in turn, there are some big spending additions. Trump wants to boost defense spending by 13 percent to a trillion dollars per year. And not only that, but he's proposing a 65 percent boost to homeland security spending. And that would go in part to mass deportations and completing the border wall, his signature issues. I should add, though, that this is not a full budget. It's an outline and it doesn't include mandatory spending. That's those big social safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Daniel Estrin 3:10
A more detailed full budget that's coming in the coming months.
Scott Simon 3:13
Tell us, please, more about those cuts to non-defense spending. Specifically what?
Daniel Estrin 3:18
Well, Trump is proposing some really deep cuts to a few agencies. He proposes cuts of more than 50 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also proposes cuts at the Internal Revenue Service, at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. I mean, really, if it's an agency that doesn't do immigration or defense, there's a good chance that Trump wants to cut it. He also proposes some cuts to education, although the administration did take care to specify that they don't propose cutting Head Start funding.
Scott Simon 3:50
Why does the administration want to cut spending at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration or spending for scientific research?
Daniel Estrin 3:59
Well, that's because there's a lot of culture war in this budget and a lot of programs are argued against on those grounds. Now, in this short document, the phrase DEI, for example, shows up 31 times. WOKE shows up 12 times and so on. Cuts from NOAA are justified because of that agency's climate work. The budget says that some programs, quote, radicalize students against markets.

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