US President Donald Trump at a repatriation ceremony for remains at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, United States, December 17, 2025. JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON / AP
Away from cameras and without ceremony, United States President Donald Trump signed into law a record defense budget for 2026, of approximately $901 billion (€769 million), on Thursday, December 18. While the budget embodied the new pillars of the US president's foreign policy, many provisions adopted by Congress significantly restrict some of the strategic shifts the president had envisioned, such as withdrawing US troops from Europe.
Spanning over 3,000 pages, the new US defense budget law, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, approved a slight increase of $6 billion compared to 2025. The sum is supplemented by an additional $150 billion in defense investments over 10 years stemming from the controversial One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) adopted in July. Altogether, this amounts to over $1 trillion allocated to US military ambitions in 2026.
The new US military budget also confirms a drastic reduction in aid to Ukraine. Only $400 million in support is planned for 2026, compared to nearly $14 billion in 2024. The program had previously funded weapons, training and infrastructure construction. "The Trump administration (...) hasn't made use of the program, instead opting to sell arms to Ukraine via European allies," said Doug Klain, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, in an online analysis.
