(CNN) A day after President Donald Trump appeared to call the current Defense Department budget "crazy," Secretary of Defense James Mattis and key Republican lawmakers who oppose any defense budget cuts met with the President to discuss military funding.

"I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!" Trump tweeted Monday.

Mattis attended the Tuesday White House meeting along with the chairmen of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, and the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, according to defense officials and congressional staffers.

The meeting comes as the Trump administration has floated a 5% cut to the Defense Department, reducing the defense budget from the $716 billion allocated in 2019 to $700 billion in 2020 as part of a federal governmentwide effort to reduce the deficit.

Defense officials were planning on a $733 billion budget for 2020 prior to the proposed cuts.

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