Donald Trump made an uncharacteristically blunt statement on his priorities last week, inadvertently encapsulating the modern right’s philosophy. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things. They can do it on a state basis; we can’t do it on a federal basis. We have to take care of one thing: military protection,” Trump said at a private lunch at the White House.

When Trump’s budget proposal came out on Friday, it became clear that he meant it. He wants Congress to increase the defense budget by 44 percent in 2027. This would make just the requested increase nearly the same size as the total military budgets of China and Russia combined.

Some of this spending would simply add to the national debt, but Trump proposes to offset part of it by cutting 10 percent of nondefense spending from the budget. Many of the proposed cuts would come from reducing or eliminating housing aid and health programs for marginalized groups, agricultural research, and teacher training.