WASHINGTON President Donald Trump presented his first official budget proposal on Tuesday, declaring a dramatic philosophical shift in public spending priorities. Put simply, Trump wants to take $54 billion currently flowing to latterthe poor, scientific research, environmental protection and other programs and hand it over to the military-industrial complex. In the process, some popular federal programs would be completely eliminated.

These cuts are sensible and rational, Trump said in a statement accompanying the budget proposal. Every agency and department will be driven to achieve greater efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their honorable service to the American people.

Presidential budgets dont actually create policy. Although they traditionally served as an opening bid for negotiations with Congress, Capitol Hills regular order budgeting process has been nonfunctional for many years. Trumps budget should instead be viewed as an ideological statement.

This is the America First budget, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters Wednesday. We wrote it using the presidents own words. We went through his speeches we wanted to know what his policies were and we turned those policies into numbers.

WINNERS

Defense contractors. The clearest winner in Trumps budget are defense contractors and the military, which would receive an additional $54 billion to pay for pretty much anything. Among several other funding targets, the budget document cites stocks of critical munitions, rebuilding readiness, a more lethal joint force and additional F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (the last have proved to be a multitrillion-dollar disaster ).

This increase alone exceeds the entire defense budget of most countries, and would be one of the largest one-year [Defense Department] increases in American history, the budget document reads.

People who want to chase down and deport immigrants. The budget proposes $314 million to hire 500 new border patrol agents and 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The Wall. Trump wants to give the Department of Homeland Security an additional $2.6 billion, some of which would be used to plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border. The actual wall, of course, would cost much more than $2.6 billion , but Rome wasnt built in a day.