Sen. Tim Kaine says Congress will ‘have a hard time’ reviewing Trump’s military budget request

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., on Sunday expressed skepticism about the Trump administration’s 2027 budget plan, which includes a request of $1.5 trillion from Congress to fund the Defense Department, a 44% increase from the amount that was appropriated to that agency for this year.

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“I have a hard time seeing that size of an increase as being justified,” Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

The senator added that he and other members of the committee would be “taking a look at it” over the next several weeks.

Part of his doubts, Kaine said, stem from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision last week to oust Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George, the chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. William Green, and the commanding general of Army Transformation and Training Command, David Hodne.

“Here’s a question we have to ask, which is, it’s not just about the dollars, it’s about the Pentagon managing the money,” the Virginia senator said. “You just watched the Secretary of Defense fire very respected Army leadership in the middle of a war — respected leadership on both sides of the aisle in both houses, and there’s deep questions about why.”

“I don’t think Congress is going to be in a mood to write a blank check to a leadership team, a civilian leadership team that seems so inept these days,” Kaine added.

Asked whether he was against the president’s budget request, Kaine told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that he still has to examine the details of the budget request and participate in upcoming hearings about the request with the Armed Services Committee.

“Needless to say, we have a lot of questions to ask, and the administration has a whole lot of explaining to do,” he added.

The Virginia senator also called the ongoing war “illegal and unwise” and called for Congress to vote on a formal declaration of war.

Appearing later on the program, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., also expressed skepticism that Congress would fulfill the entire military budget request.

“The administration released its budget. That is not going to be the final budget or appropriations numbers,” Lawler told “Meet the Press,” adding, “we will continue to ensure that our armed forces have the resources that they need to conduct military operations.”

Lawler also spoke about the ongoing conflict in Iran, questioning whether there’d be a need for U.S. troops on the ground at any point and pushing back on Kaine’s use of the term “illegal” to describe the war.

“I think the question moving forward with respect to any troops on the ground would be for what purpose? And I think the only purpose that I could see would be to get the enriched uranium,” the New York congressman told Welker. “And I think that is something that does need to be discussed with Congress in a classified setting, and I think Congress would need to be briefed on that particular matter.”

Then, Lawler accused Kaine and other Democrats of, “gaslighting the American people.”

He added, “I want to push back on something Senator Kaine said: This is not an illegal military operation. The president is fully within his authority to conduct this military operation, the War Powers resolution and war powers that gives him 60 to 90 days to conduct such an operation, and Congress was lawfully notified within 48 hours of the initial incursions.”