President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE said Wednesday that the Pentagon will request $700 billion for the next fiscal year, a drop of $16 billion from the previous year.

“We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department. It will probably be $700 billion,” Trump said of the fiscal year 2020 request.

Speaking to reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said he has directed every Cabinet secretary to cut 5 percent off their budgets for next year.

ADVERTISEMENT

That cut does not appear to apply to the Defense Department, as $700 billion is only a 2.3 percent reduction from the previous year’s request of $716 billion.

Trump last month ultimately signed into law a $854 billion spending package that included $674 billion in defense funding.

The president said the latest figure is part of an effort to rebuild the military, which he said was “falling apart” two years ago.

“Our military is in the process of being fixed. Planes are being made, boats are being made, ships are being made, missiles, rockets, everything,” he said.

“Our nuclear is being brought to a level that nobody else can even imagine. Pray God we don't have to use it, but there will be nothing like what we have, and there is nothing like what we have and that's why I did that. I made deals with the devil in order to get that done.”

Trump added: "We're doing things that we have never done on this scale. So, that included a lot of rebuilding of our military. Despite that, I am going to keep that at $700 billion, defense."



