The Paw Print

Donald Trump has been in office for almost an entire year, and the ripples created by his administration have been felt globally. This first year of his presidency has seen a wide range of headlines dominating every major news outlet; from a trade war with dozens of countries, to the unauthorized bombing of Iran, and the mass controversy caused by the Epstein files. Regardless of political association, everyone can agree that the actions of the Trump administration have transformed the U.S. indefinitely and completely. However, many of these actions can be traced back to one particular thing: money.

The heavily divisive “Big Beautiful Bill,” officially known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) or H.R.1, is the largest redirection of wealth by his administration and the main accomplishment made in his second term thus far (at least, for his own party). Signed into law on July 4th of this year, it causes millions of Americans to lose their healthcare coverage and SNAP benefits while money is instead poured into upper class tax cuts, the tearing down of multiple federal agencies, and more.

It’s immensely important for young people to understand the serious changes brought by the Big Beautiful Bill. It targets nearly every aspect of the U.S., rewinding years of progress made by past presidents to help improve our country. In this article, we’ll be highlighting three major ways in which this law changes our country: increasing military funding, drilling for oil & gas in the Alaskan wilderness, and the reinforcement of ICE as a force to be reckoned with.

Note: unless specifically stated otherwise, most information is taken from the law text and public bill summary authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) available for public viewing and usage in the U.S. Congress’ website, which you can find here.

Military Spending

Title II of the Big Beautiful Bill details the additional funding towards numerous national defense and security programs and projects, including missile systems, aircraft production, and shipbuilding.

A few additional funds listed under Title II include:

• $29.2 billion for shipbuilding, its industry base, and activities related to it.
• $25.4 billion for weapon systems including hypersonic, ballistic, and air-to-air missiles.
• $8.6 billion to improve the capabilities of various military aircrafts.
• $14.7 billion for the development and production of nuclear forces and nuclear defense resources.

The military expenditure, or military spending of the US as of 2024 is $997 billion in USD, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) fact sheet. This ranks our country as the highest military spender in the world. To get an idea of just how much that is, the combined spending of China and Russia (the 2nd and 3rd ranking countries, respectively) would account for less than half of the total spending of the US. 

Increased military spending causes increased geopolitical tensions, and one day those tensions could erupt. We’ve seen something similar in the past with the Cold War and the nuclear arms race that came with it. Everybody wants to avoid conflict, but this change brought by the Big Beautiful Bill only challenges hopes for world peace in the future.

Natural Resources

Title V of the Big Beautiful Bill covers the changes made to funding for natural resources, but in particular, the authorization for extracting oil and natural gas in the vast Alaskan wilderness.

Under Subtitle A, the Secretary of the Interior is directed to conduct at least 4 lease sales for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) over the next 10 years, with a minimum of 400,000 acres per sale. It also requires 5 lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) over the next 10 years as well, with a minimum of 4 million acres per sale.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the ANWR is the largest wildlife refuge in the country—nearly the size of South Carolina—and is home to diverse wildlife and rich culture of the indigenous peoples native to the land. According to the Bureau of Land Management, The NPR-A is a 23.4 million acre area of land (even larger than the ANWR) that was once used as an emergency fuel supply for the Navy. Similar to the ANWR, it contains unique biodiversity, Alaskan native lands, and 5 protected “Special Areas” that have been proposed to be adjusted or eliminated as of June 2025, as described by a CRS product regarding the NPR-A. 

The decision to open these lands for the extraction of fossil fuels will only continue to damage the natural world we live in through the releasing of greenhouse gases and physical developments like oil rigs, revealing the Trump administration and its party’s apathetic view and direct negligence of the environment.

Immigration and Border Control

The final two titles of the Big Beautiful Bill, Title IX and Title X, detail a handful of changes made to matters of immigration and law enforcement in the country, specifically to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Additional immigration and border security funds listed under Title IX and Title X are:

• $46.5 billion to CBP for the construction, installation, and improvement of barriers near the border, access roads, and more.
• About $12 billion to CPB for personnel, vehicles, facilities, and more.
• $45 billion to ICE for increasing the capacity of detention facilities.
• About $6.1 billion to CPB for surveillance, screenings, and more.
• $2 billion to the DHS for hiring & training agents, transportation costs related to deportations, and more.
• About $29.8 billion to ICE for hiring & training agents, various bonuses, transportation costs, and more.

In total, this is about $140 billion in additional funding for Trump’s immigration and deportation efforts and nearly $75 billion for ICE alone, with more funds still unaccounted for. This makes ICE the most funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history. Using the SIPRI fact sheet, ICE even ranks as a higher-funded agency than a majority of the world’s militaries, such as Israel, South Korea, Mexico, France, and Ukraine.

For a law enforcement agency, ICE is known to be particularly controversial for its trademark approach to conducting its business: abducting people off of the streets or from parking lots, not providing due process, its agents masked and lacking identification, and even being allowed to racially profile people by a Supreme Court ruling. 

ICE infringes upon the rights of both illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens and violates the Constitution in countless ways. The Big Beautiful Bill gives ICE the ability to operate as more a means of fearmongering than it is of practicing the law, and gives innocent Americans a reason to both worry about their safety and be frustrated by the depravity in which they must live amongst.

In this first year of the Trump presidency, The “megabill” makes a point as the great pride of his party and the major loss of his opposition. Claps, cheers, and chants of “U.S.A.!” filled the House floor as Speaker Mike Johnson announced the passing of the bill to his fellow Republican party, but what for? A law that spends more on its military and forceful immigration enforcement than its own citizens doesn’t seem like much of a celebratory matter, but that’s for you to decide.