EXCLUSIVE: Trump Supports Annual Defense Policy Bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson has crucial support as he seeks to pass the annual defense policy bill as early as Wednesday afternoon.
The White House is urging lawmakers to support the more than 3,000-page bill introduced Sunday evening, according to an administrative policy statement (SAP) obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. President Donald Trump’s support for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY26 comes as several conservative Republicans criticized the sprawling legislation for authorizing additional security aid funding to Ukraine and omitting language banning a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as well as DEI-related items. (RELATED: Here’s the contents of the major defense bill the Senate just passed during the shutdown)
“This NDAA will enable the Department of War (DoW) to implement President Trump’s peace through strength agenda, protect the homeland, and strengthen the defense industrial base, while eliminating funding for unnecessary and radical programs that undermine the war ethos of our nation’s men and women in uniform,” the White House document reads in part.
“If S. 1071 were presented to the President in its current form, he would sign it into law,” the document also states.
The White House and Johnson praised the legislation for codifying 15 of Trump’s executive orders, including directives ending DEI in the military, supporting the president’s “Golden Dome” defense project and revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base.
The bill authorizes $900.6 billion for the War Department, just over $8 billion more than the budget requested by the president earlier this year.
The defense policy bill includes a 3.8% pay increase for U.S. military personnel starting January 1. The high-profile legislation also restricts some investments in China, repeals decades-old Iraq War and Gulf War laws and cracks down on Chinese-made technology in military supply chains.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 3: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) answers a question from a reporter outside his office at the U.S. Capitol on December 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Given Republicans’ slim majority in the House, Johnson can afford to spare only a handful of votes if all Democrats are present and oppose the legislation.
One of the earliest critics of this year’s NDAA, New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik said she would support the measure after Johnson agreed to include one of its provisions in the bill. Stefanik’s provision would require the FBI to disclose when the bureau is monitoring candidates for president and other federal offices.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who will retire from Congress in January 2026, is so far the only Republican “no” vote on the legislation. She claimed on social media Monday that the defense policy bill would “fund foreign aid and foreign countries’ wars.”
“I would love to fund our military but I would refuse to support foreign aid, foreign armies and foreign wars,” Greene wrote on X.
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna sharply criticized the legislation for authorizing $400 million in new security assistance funds for Ukraine. She has not said how she plans to vote when the bill is introduced.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who voted against the original draft of the NDAA in September, may also oppose the Trump-backed legislation.
The Senate is expected to consider the NDAA compromise bill next week, assuming the legislation is approved by the House.
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