As the war in Iran and the straight of Hormuz rages on, the fossil fueled fascist Trump regime is demanding more than $1.5 trillion in new and expanded war funding. This is money that will be used to wage wars for oil, and has already been paid for with American lives.
The Big Bad Budget Reconciliation Bill of 2025 already cut over $1 trillion in funding from health care and food assistance programs. Now Trump wants to increase the Pentagon budget by $600 billion more than last year. But this time the vote is not a slam dunk – the death of Senator Lindsay Graham, and the long absence of Senator Mitch McConnell, combined with opposition to the war in Iran are raising questions over whether the regime has the votes to fund its war machine.
Congress must pass separate “authorization” and “appropriation” bills to establish and fund the Pentagon and all other federal programs. If 41 Senators vote against Trump’s “National Defense Authorization Act” this week it will block Trump’s massive Pentagon funding increases. Click here to send a message to Congress telling them to stop Trump’s Trillion dollar+ War budget.
Trump is pushing his Pentagon increase in three steps:
- Right now: A massive $1.5 trillion “National Defense Authorization Act” This is the main, annual, appropriation for the military and war sending, but it’s never been this big in 250 years of American history.
- A separate $88 billion Iran war funding bill to fund the conflict Trump keeps claiming will be over soon, but which has been destabilizing energy markets and the global economy since March.
- Coming soon: Trump’s allies in Congress are discussing another $350 billion in war sending which would be passed via a separate bill using the “Budget reconciliation” process.
Why do we call these war’s for oil? Iran has some of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas and oil (not far behind Venezuela, which he invaded illegally at the start of the year). In fact, Big Oil companies were quick to declare their support for Trump’s illegal wars, noting that “Iran’s oil industry, … is still considered to be structurally sound, unlike that of Venezuela’s.”
And what will Trump do with all this new money for war? First and foremost, the regime says that it needs more money to continue the war with Iran. But Trump has also announced expensive new plans to expand the military’s use of AI and data centers, and a huge amount of money is allocated to go directly to Israel and their ongoing wars in Lebanon and the genocide in Gaza and Palestine.
But again, none of this horrible news is a done deal yet. Fossil fueled fascists in the House failed to pass a defense authorization bill last month in a spectacular flame out of intra-party fighting. This is the week to lean in and push. Click here to send a message to Congress telling them to oppose Trump’s trillion dollar+ war budget – we’ll send the message directly to your member of congress and Senators, and follow up later this week with additional actions you can take as key votes are scheduled.