(Photo: AFP/VNA)

The proposal calls for 8.6 billion USD in new border wall funding, 6 times what Congress allocated for such projects in each of the past 2 fiscal years, and 6% more than Trump has demanded by invoking controversial emergency powers.

The President proposed a 4 percent boost in defense spending to 750 billion USD, using the emergency Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account to avoid the restrictions set out in a 2011 fiscal restraint law. Proposed non-defense spending was reduced by steep funding cuts to the State Department (23 percent) and the Environmental Protection Agency (31 percent), among others.