President Trump said Tuesday that a growing economy will help pay for his proposal to hike military spending.

The president said he believes that the $54 billion proposed boost to Pentagon spending will be covered by a growing economy he envisions under his economic plan.

"I think the money is going to come from a revved-up economy," Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game," Trump said. "It's a whole different ball game."

But White House budget director Mick Mulvaney on Monday said the cost would be paid for by slashing the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department as well as cuts elsewhere.

Trump acknowledged that even if the White House budget blueprint guts EPA and State Department funding, that’s still not enough to cover the increase in military spending.

To fire up the economy, Trump says he wants to overhaul the tax code, cut regulations, repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and devote more spending to areas like infrastructure.

The president will likely outline his initiatives his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.