Under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, the FBI is facing more than $500 million in budget cuts.
Earlier this week, I wrote an article for The National Interest titled “Hegseth Targets Generals and Old Weapons in New Military Cuts.” Therein, I discussed an announcement by U.S. secretary of defense Pete Hegseth about his plan to trim a lot of proverbial fat from the ranks of the Army by cutting an excess number of general officers. This is very much in keeping with his stated agenda of not only fighting wokeness in the Department of Defense (DOD) but indeed keeping “a laser focus on readiness, lethality and warfighting across the spectrum.”
Now it appears that the DOD isn’t the only weapon-toting component of the U.S. federal government to be considering cost-cutting and fat-trimming. Under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in general and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in particular are earmarked to follow suit.
Budget Busting at the FBI?
The initial inspiration for this article comes from a May 2, 2025, piece by Kerry Pickett of The Washington Times titled “Trump budget includes cuts to FBI, DOJ.” To wit:
“President Trump’s new budget proposal includes $545 million in cuts to the FBI and other Justice Department agencies … The slices are part of $163 billion in cuts to the 2026 federal spending bill released Friday … The budget describes the cuts to the FBI as ‘reflecting Mr. Trump’s priority of reducing violent crime in American cities and protecting national security by getting FBI agents into the field by cutting FBI D.C. overhead and preserving existing law enforcement officers.’ The administration says it’s ‘committed’ to reversing the ‘weaponization’ of the FBI that ‘pervaded the previous administration,’ listing the targeting of peaceful pro-life protesters, concerned parents at school board meetings, and citizens opposed to ‘radical transgender ideology.’ … The budget will instead focus on counterintelligence and counterterrorism while reducing nonlaw enforcement missions that don’t align with the president’s agenda.”
What Does FBI Director Kash Patel Have to Say?
FBI director Kash Patel was initially leery of the cuts to his agency, but upon further review, he has decided he can live with it, as noted by Jackson Richman of The Epoch Times:
“‘My view is that we will make and agree with this budget as it stands, and make it work for the operational necessity of the FBI,’ he told the Senate Appropriations Committee … ‘As the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money.’”
But then again, Patel’s flexibility on this issue is more than understandable when you recall that, prior to serving in the Trump administration, Kash himself frequently complained about being victimized by FBI overreach.
A Federal Law Enforcement Veteran’s Personal Perspective
As our regular readers have noticed from my bio, I am a former Federal law enforcement officer. To be more specific, I was a uniformed U.S. Customs & Border Protection Officer at Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport (the nation’s busiest seaport) from 2006 to 2009, and then transitioned over to CBP’s sister agency, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.
While it remains to be seen how the Trump administration’s cuts to the DOJ and FBI will be enacted, it sure would be nice to see the FBI once again separate itself from politics and get back to its basics as a true law enforcement agency. A return to this mission and mindset would honor the memories of the agents who sacrificed life and limb fighting the bad guys.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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