President Donald Trump has unveiled a $6 billion boost to the Pentagon budget in the latest effort to win back the trust of American voters.
The announcement, made on Friday, said the US military would increase its military spending by $600 billion over the next 10 years, with the bulk of the increase coming from the Pentagon’s Department of Defense.
The president, who took office on Jan. 20, made the announcement on the second day of a two-day summit in the White House with the heads of the US intelligence agencies and the State Department.
Trump is also expected to announce a $1 trillion plan to rebuild the US economy, including by expanding manufacturing and infrastructure.
“We will be investing in the future, not the past,” Trump said in a speech.
“But we can do so with confidence because we are rebuilding, not just rebuilding, but rebuilding in the way that we know how.”
Trump has been seeking to make good on a promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, a centerpiece of his campaign to make the US great again, and promised to build an 11-mile (18 km) border wall on the US side of the border with Mexico.
The wall has been the target of months of protest by Mexicans, who fear it will only encourage illegal immigration.
But the president has insisted that the wall is a top priority, and is now proposing to spend an additional $1.5 billion on the construction of the wall.
The US military has said it is working on a $4 billion plan to increase its funding for missile defense, though it has not specified what type of missiles would be used.
