Donald Trump: Money for increased defense spending to come from ‘revved up economy’

President Trump said a “revved up economy” will help pay for the planned $54 billion increase in military spending in his 2018 budget blueprint.

“I think the money’s going to come from a revved up economy,” Mr. Trump said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

“You look at the kind of numbers we’re doing — we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent, and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more we have a whole different ballgame,” he said. “And that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Mr. Trump is also eyeing cuts to domestic programs and at agencies like the State Department, as well as cuts to foreign aid.

“We have countries where we’re taking care of their military [and] we’re not being reimbursed, and they’re wealthy countries,” he said. “We have a lot of things happening, but we’re going to get the numbers way up and we’re going to get jobs back in our country.”

“We have right now hundreds and hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with environmental protection,” Mr. Trump said.

He said when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt gets going, “those projects are going to be freed up and they’re going to be sailing, and you’re talking about thousands and millions, actually, of jobs.”