Trump’s Extreme Use of Military Is Stirring a Crisis of Conscience Among Troops
As President Donald Trump increasingly uses the U.S. military to carry out his agenda through brute force, organizations that provide counseling services for U.S. servicemembers are reporting growing numbers of calls. These calls have further spiked in response to Trump’s war on Iran, one of the most unpopular in U.S. history. The United States has carried out the war through intense attacks…
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‘A moral obscenity’: Trump budget pairs record military boost with billions in cuts to social programs
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 03, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
President Donald Trump’s White House released a budget proposal on Friday that pairs an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in military spending with tens of billions of dollars in cuts to domestic agencies and education, healthcare, climate, and housing programs.
Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2027, which must be approved by Congress, includes $73 billion in total cuts to nondefense spending while boosting military outlays by 42%—or nearly $500 billion—compared to current levels.
Programs cut or eliminated in the proposed budget—under the guise of slashing “woke programs” and “ending the Green New Scam”—include the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice program, Community Services Block Grants, electric vehicle charging subsidies, renewable energy initiatives at the Interior Department, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing.
The budget proposal also calls for cuts to the already-depleted Internal Revenue Service, without offering specific figures.
One budget expert noted that, if enacted, the White House’s requested cuts would bring nondefense discretionary spending to “its lowest level in the modern era.”
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote in response to Trump’s request that “to pay for his endless wars, he wants the biggest increase to military spending in 70 years.”
“How does he pay for it? Cuts to ‘education, health, housing, and more,’” Casar added. “Hell no.”
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement that “the Trump-Vought budget proposal is a moral obscenity,” referring to Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
“The $500 billion annual increase in proposed Pentagon spending—if it were instead deployed humanely—would be enough to solve or meaningfully address the nation’s great problems, from healthcare to daycare,
Abby Martin: The US military is ‘Earth’s greatest enemy’
Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the new blockbuster documentary by independent journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin, is an expansive and terrifying investigation into the existential threat that US empire in general—and the US military specifically—poses to humanity and to our planet. In this panel discussion, recorded after a live screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy on Jan. 29 at the TRNN studio in Baltimore, Maryland, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for The Guardian, speak with Abby Martin about how US militarism and imperialism are destroying the planet—and what can be done to stop them.
Guests:
Abby Martin is an independent journalist, filmmaker, and host of The Empire Files. She is the director of the 2019 documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom and the 2026 documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy.
Dharna Noor is a fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian.
Credits:
Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome everyone to the Real News Network podcast. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. I’m the editor-in-chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us. Earth’s greatest enemy is the title of a new blockbuster documentary by legendary independent journalist and filmmaker, Abby Martin. It is an expansive, engrossing, and frankly, terrifying investigation into the existential threat that US Empire in general and the US military specifically poses to humanity and to our planet. Recently, right here in the real news studio in downtown Baltimore, we had the honor of hosting the Baltimore premiere of this vital documentary, and
Report: Many Middle East US Bases “All But Uninhabitable” Due to Iran Strikes
The appearance of triumph and U.S. might has been of paramount importance to President Donald Trump and his administration amid their war on Iran, with much of their pro-war propaganda centered around a vision of the U.S. military as infallible. But the U.S. has suffered major losses in the war thus far, the extent of which were reportedly revealed in a New York Times article on Wednesday.
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Trump Admin Pursues an Unprecedented Legal Strategy to Target Border Crossers
Jose Omar Flores-Penaloza was willing to admit that he had entered the United States illegally. He was ready to be deported, according to his attorneys. But federal prosecutors would not let him go last spring without making him answer for another crime — one he had never heard of. Weeks earlier, President Donald Trump, to address what he called a national emergency, ordered a stretch of…
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