President Trump will look to prioritize military spending over balancing the federal budget, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday.
“So a balanced budget is fine,” Trump said. “But sometimes you have to fuel the well in order to really get the economy going. And we have to take care of our military. Our military is more important to me than a balanced budget. Because we’ll get there with a balanced budget.”
“I want a balanced budget eventually,” he added. “But I want to have a strong military. To me that’s much more important than anything.”
{mosads}Trump’s comments came a day after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voiced his concern that the president’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), would “slash the military.”
Mulvaney, a fierce advocate for massive federal spending cuts, has opposed increases in military funding in the past.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to bolster the country’s military, arguing that U.S. defense power has been largely depleted.
But the president also said early in his campaign that he would seek to balance the federal budget. He told Hannity during an interview in July 2015 that, as president, he would “insist” on such a policy, though he acknowledged it could take time.
“I would insist on it relatively soon,” Trump said. “Right now we’re so under, we’re so far under that you can’t go too quickly. But I would absolutely insist on it relatively soon.”