More robust economic growth will help fund increases in spending to bulk up the military and upgrade the nation's infrastructure, President Donald Trump told Fox News.
"I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy," Trump said in a taped "Fox & Friends" interview that aired Tuesday ahead of his evening address to a joint session of Congress.
In the government's second look at fourth-quarter gross domestic product out Tuesday morning, the annual growth rate of 1.9 percent, which was unchanged from the initial reading, was slower than expected.
"I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing," he argued. "If I can get that up to 3 [percent] or maybe more, we have a whole different ballgame."
In a preview of Trump's speech, the White House said the president's first budget will call for a $54 billion increase in defense spending and corresponding cuts in what the administration deems lower priority programs.
Trump told Fox that military spending could even be "$30 billion more than that."