President Trump is proposing a 54 billion dollar increase in defense spending as part of the budget he's preparing to submit to the US Congress.
The President is calling for cuts to be made to a wide variety of other government-backed programs in a bid to increase the funding available to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, a top Republican on Capitol Hill has become the first lawmaker to call for the appointment of an independent Special Prosecutor to investigate contacts between President Trump's top aides and the Russians during last year's election campaign.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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President Trump began the week here in Washington unveiling the contours of his budget.
He'd promised his supporters last year that he would rebuild a military he claims is in desperate need of modernization….and this budget is designed to get the job done.
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The President is calling for an additional 54 billion dollars to be spent on military modernization.
He says he wants a military that is "bigger, better and stronger than ever before".
But to pay for it…he insists he won't cost the taxpayer a single additional penny.
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So programs that are anathema to President Trump's political base are targeted for cuts.
The Environmental Protection Agency….the State Department….and cultural programs like the National Endowment for the Humanities….all of them are set to have their budgets shredded.
All of that, of course, presupposes that President Trump isn't touched by the investigation into his aides' contacts with Russia during last year's election campaign.
And on that issue, the White House continues to receive a stack of unwelcome news.
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That's Congressman Darrell Issa of California….the former head of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
He went after Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server like a terrier last year….and now in an interview with HBO's Bill Maher he's become the first top Republican to call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate President Trump….not the President's own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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Adding to White House woes, a rare televised interview with former President George W. Bush.
He told NBC's Today show that he thinks an investigation is warranted.
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And what, he was asked, does he think about the President's relentless attacks on reporters who keep digging in to the Trump team's ties with Russia?
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President Trump on Twitter has dismised the Russia story as "fake news"…and he'll have a further opportunity to try and shift the narrative here on Tuesday night when he addresses a joint session of Congress.
But he knows a growing number of Republicans beneath the Capitol dome now worry that his administration is in trouble over Russia….and that their constituents are demanding answers.
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