DEFENSE BUDGETWill Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Defense Spending Last?
Trump’s signature legislation will push defense spending past $1 trillion, with new funding for innovation and other capabilities. But those investments are at risk of becoming one-off acquisitions without sustained follow-on funding.
On July 4, President Donald Trump signed what he has called the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress had passed the day before. The law will reshape the country’s tax code, social services, and immigration enforcement. However, what is less well known is that the bill also funds an emerging military and nuclear technology wish list.
The legislation pushes the total planned defense spending requests and appropriations to over $1 trillion for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). It includes a $156.2 billion increase in national defense funding, in addition to the Pentagon’s request for approximately $848 billion in defense spending for FY26. While most of the attention on the defense portion of the bill will go towards the $12.8 billion allocated for Trump’s Golden Dome initiative—the president’s promised missile defense shield over the homeland—and $1 billion to secure the southern border, the bill provides tens of billions of dollars in funding for innovation priorities. This includes autonomous and precise mass systems, an expansion of nuclear weapons modernization, and space capabilities.
Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican Chair of the Armed Services Committee, called the bill a “down payment on a generational upgrade for our nation’s defense capabilities.” But because Trump’s tax and reconciliation bill is funded outside of the standard defense authorization and appropriations processes (the “base” budget), that “upgrade” might only be temporary. The Department can spend the funds until 2029, but without integration into the “base budget” in future years—including resources for sustainment—the investments that we examine below risk becoming short-term acquisitions rather than enduring capabilities.
