Washington DC - President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants to increase the US military budget by half next year to a giant $1.5 trillion to deal with "troubled and dangerous times."

Trump has frequently employed the US military – which is currently funded at record levels – since returning to office.

Despite promising to usher in an era of peace, he has ordered deadly strikes on Yemen, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, Nigeria, and small boats sailing in international waters.

"I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars," Trump said on Truth Social.

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"This will allow us to build the 'Dream Military' that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe."

Trump said the 50%-plus increase was made possible by revenue from the sweeping tariffs he has imposed on friend and foe alike.

The US is already the world's biggest military spender by orders of magnitude, but has some of the highest poverty rates among all developed nations. Tens of millions are currently suffering from an affordability crisis.

Trump's announcement on boosting the US military budget comes after NATO allies committed last year to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 in response pressure from the Republican.

Even as he announced a budget goal that would be a major boon to arms manufacturers, Trump took aim at them in a separate post.

Contractors are "issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment," while pay packages for executives are "exorbitant and unjustifiable," he said, singling out Raytheon in particular.