Amid the rhetoric on the military and immigration Trump's budget includes his latest broken promise

Congress will take little from the President's new proposal, but he has still gone back on his word

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with state and local officials about infrastructure (AP)

Nobody can doubt that America is need of an infrastructure overhaul, or that money needs to be spent to help alleviate an opioid crisis that is only getting worse. And nobody should be surprised that President Donald Trump is looking to up government spending on both the military and immigration.

The spending on the military – amid tensions with North Korea and a crowded battlefield in Syria – is something Mr Trump has made clear will be a consistent feature of his tenure. The spending on immigration is another no-brainer for the President, particularly as it includes funding for his precious border wall with Mexico. Cuts to social welfare programmes is the last of the major elements, with Mr Trump aiming to cut what he believes is waste despite many arguing they are vital services.

Both the decisions over the military and immigration will play well with his supporters, and the cuts to welfare programs will please Republicans in Congress, but the proposed budget also brings with it one more thing – a broken campaign promise.

Broken promises are not a new thing for the Trump presidency, despite the Commander-in-Chief also following through on a number of key campaign pledges. Mr Trump had said numerous times on the campaign trail that he would seek a balanced budget and that would remove the federal deficit within 10 years or less. This was backed up by a White House spending proposal last year that said that the US would be looking at a budget surplus of $16bn in 2027.

With this new budget, that has been thrown out of the window. The new budget proposals will add $7tn (yes, trillion) to the debt over the next decade – with more spending, including a budget pact reached in Congress last week and less tax revenue thanks to the historic reforms late last year.

Mr Trump did not even need to push the boat out so far, despite White House officials claiming that the budget will not necessarily be “dead on arrival” to Congress, it is obvious that proposals like the money for the border wall will face stiff opposition. And even badly-needed proposals like the headline-grabbing increase in spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure are already facing blow-back from Democrats for not providing enough federal funding.

So why the big push for increases in funding that will likely be modified or removed as soon as they hit the floor in Congress? As usual for Mr Trump, optics are at least part of the equation. Asking for military spending – which many Republicans would back – allows the President to portray the image of strength to the global community that he feels he needs. All the talk about deficits thanks to reduced tax revenue is reminding people about the tax cuts enacted in December, a big legislative victory that Mr Trump wants to keep in the public eye. Meanwhile the immigration spending allows him to keep the border wall as part of the debate, even if he knows it is contentious. And that was a more important promise for him than the balancing of the books.

Mr Trump has acknowledged that elements of the budget proposal, particularly infrastructure, may not pass Congress, telling reporters that the plan was not as important as military spending or passing of the tax cuts.

“What was very important to me was the military; what was very important to me was the tax cuts; and what was very important to me was regulation,” he said. “This is of great importance, but it’s not nearly of that category because the states will have to do it themselves if we don’t do it.”

The issue that this brings for some of those in the GOP is that balancing of the books has become a Republican mantra and this budget leaves the door open for them to not even try. Mr Trump has given up on the promise and it is likely that whatever budget that comes out of Congress will not bring balance either. It is the latest example of Mr Trump diverting away from long-held Republican ideals and that may not sit well with some in his own party.