ISRAEL PERSPECTIVE

The Jerusalem Post details the budget request with an angle nobody else highlights: the $500 billion increase includes a 5-7% military pay raise at a time when thousands of servicemembers are actively deployed. The JP notes this request comes right after the longest government shutdown in American history, caused by a spending disagreement. The US deficit keeps widening -- the CBO forecasts $1.853 trillion for the current fiscal year, up from $1.775 trillion last year. National debt stands at $39.016 trillion. The JP notes the irony: Trump came to power promising to cut spending, recruited Elon Musk to push 300,000 people off the federal payroll -- and now requests the largest military increase in decades. Israel reads this budget as a guarantee: as long as Washington invests massively in war, the strategic partnership is locked in. But the JP is clear-eyed enough to note the battle in Congress will be fierce.