US President Donald Trump is seeking a historic rise of $54 billion in the military budget for the next fiscal year, arguing that this measure follows his promise “to keep the Americans safe.” This comes as according to a White House budget official, Trump plans to increase military spending by slashing the same amount from non-military spending.

In an interview with Press TV, Paul Street, a journalist and political commentator, called Trump’s decision “preposterous” at a time when a sizeable proportion of the American people are living below the poverty line.

"It is an absolutely preposterous statement. But like much of the world, Americans are getting used to hearing preposterous statements from their insane clown president on a daily basis."

He further noted that “the so-called defense budget in the United States, which is really an empire budget, accounts for 37 percent of all global military spending and that accounts for 54.6 percent of all federal discretionary spending by the US government. The notion of this kind of increase coming at a time when tens of millions of American children live below the federal government’s poverty level is absolutely atrocious.”

Asked whether or not this decision would bring about more peace and stability in the world, he replied, “All my lifetime, the United States has been engaged in some sort of military conflict; sometimes quite gigantic, like Vietnam and Iraq. The body count is into the many millions and it stokes resentment and hatred and fear of the United States in all four corners of the planet. So, this just promises more of that. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy when you think about it."

Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress to share some details about his legislative agenda before the White House releases its summary budget proposal in March.

Since the beginning of his campaign for the 2016 presidential election, Trump has repeatedly complained about the US military, calling it “depleted."