Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is directing Pentagon agencies and the military to cut their budgets by 8 percent as part of a dramatic realignment of defense spending to address priorities of President Donald Trump such as protecting the border and modernizing the nuclear force.

The Pentagon would cut military commands in Europe and the Middle East, as well as several programs long deemed critical while preserving or increasing spending in 17 priority areas, including border security, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.

The scale and speed of the cuts, totaling $50 billion, marks a dramatic shift in U.S. defense policy and will likely set up a battle with Congress, where Republicans had planned to increase Pentagon spending as part of a package aimed at enacting Trump’s broader agenda.

In the memo, Hegseth outlines cuts that are twice as severe as the sequestration budget reductions imposed in 2013 — the last major cuts to the Defense Department — and equivalent to double the amount that congressional Republicans had planned to add to the Pentagon budget.

The memo does not protect weapons systems that the Pentagon had previously designated as among its most critical, including Columbia-class submarines that are set to enter service within the next decade, space-based systems, a range of manned aircraft, as well as troop deployments to a number of regions, including Europe and the Middle East.

Hegseth indicated that the cuts to future defense budgets, which had been drafted under the Biden administration, should be reinvested in the Pentagon’s new priority areas under Trump.

The full list of priorities exempted from cuts include Virginia-class submarines, uncrewed systems and the Air Force’s emerging uncrewed fighter jet program, surface ships, cybersecurity, munitions and energetics, and homeland missile defense, likely in anticipation of Trump’s push for a nationwide American equivalent of Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system.

The realignment signals a major shift in spending priorities that will certainly face resistance on Capitol Hill. The memo drew swift condemnation from the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee’s ranking member, Sen. Chris Coons .

“Secretary Hegseth is in over his head, and the American people will be less safe as a result,” the Delaware Democrat said in a statement. “These cuts are not just ‘low impact items’ — they will impact troop readiness, research and development into cutting-edge weapons systems, and even hang our special operations forces out to dry, all so that President Trump can fund his useless ‘Star Wars’ missile defense program. Republicans are slashing defense spending right to the bone, and [Vladimir] Putin and Xi [Jinping] are celebrating.”

One person familiar with other directives from Hegseth said that the Pentagon leadership has also asked military leaders to offer lists of programs they would like to cut, but Congress has insisted they fund. During the budgeting process, lawmakers often refuse to curtail or cut some programs the services insist they no longer want, but which have constituencies on the Hill because there are local jobs at stake.

Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said in a statement Wednesday that the Pentagon’s list of cuts to fund their new priorities were taken from the Biden administration’s draft budget for fiscal year 2026.

“To achieve our mandate from President Trump, we are guided by his priorities including securing our borders, building the Iron Dome for America, and ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” Salesses said.

In his statement, Salesses identified border security, Trump’s Iron Dome project, and ending diversity programs as the agency’s key priorities. He also called for cutting spending on Pentagon programs dealing with “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy.”

The prioritization of the southwest border is striking given that border operations fall under the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense. It signals a major shift in how military funding is used, away from traditional defense missions.

Climate change is also a category that can mean many things, and encompasses in some form, all military construction efforts, especially shipyard modernization which has been a major focus over the past several years.

Many of the geographic U.S. combatant commands also appear poised to be cut. While U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and its efforts to build bases in the region appear to be protected, other key regional commands such as U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command do not appear to be exempted from cuts.

Notably, Hegseth’s memo doesn’t block cuts to the head counts for the military’s six branches.

The list of exemptions contained in the memo is often vague, listing things like “munitions” which has a massive range of possible systems that can fall under the heading, and “Executable Surface Ships” which the Navy would argue are all ship classes in the pipeline.

One massive omission is the Navy’s Columbia-class submarine, which will carry the nation’s sea-based nuclear weapons beginning next decade, and which the Navy has named as its number one priority.

The memo shields private-sector medical care from cuts, potentially setting up reductions at military hospitals and medical centers, which provide essential health care to millions of service members and veterans, said a Senate Democratic aide.

The diversity, equity and inclusion programs Hegseth is targeting are “budget dust” and unlikely to yield significant savings, the aide said.

Congress was still digesting the proposal late Wednesday, but lawmakers will likely move to protect their favored military capabilities and projects.

Congress has blocked efforts by the Pentagon to exact savings by shedding older technology, though top lawmakers have more recently signaled a willingness to swap out older hardware in favor of emerging technology.

Congress is also eyeing programs and weapons that could be placed on the chopping block. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers and ranking Democrat Adam Smith sent letters to the military services asking them to outline lower priority programs that could be cut or eliminated, so funding can be redirected to programs that better meet the U.S. defense strategy.

Bloomberg and the Washington Post first reported on Hegseth’s memo.

Daniel Lippman contributed reporting for this article.