President Donald Trump's proposal to slash funding for the US State Department and foreign aid faces stiff opposition, with even his fellow Republicans saying the idea would be "dead on arrival" in Congress.
Trump administration officials said on Monday they sought to increase Pentagon spending and offset that with sharp cuts in other areas.
One official familiar with discussions about the State Department budget said the agency could see spending cut by as much as 30 per cent.
The US spends more than $US50 billion ($A65 billion) a year on the State Department and foreign assistance, compared with $US600 billion or more a year on the Pentagon.
But the administration's proposals are just the start of negotiations on a budget that must be passed by Congress.
Several leading lawmakers said diplomacy and foreign aid ensured national security in tandem with military forces and weapons.
Asked if the Senate would pass a budget that cut the State Department budget by one-third, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded: "Probably not."
Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate subcommittee responsible for the State and foreign aid budgets, said Trump's idea would be "dead on arrival" in Congress.
"It would be a disaster. If you take soft power off the table, then you're never going to win the war. What's most disturbing about the cut in the State Department's budget, it shows a lack of understanding of what it takes to win the war," he said on MSNBC.
Senate armed services committee chairman John McCain said it was short-sighted to cut diplomacy and aid, even though he wanted $US640 billion in defence spending - far more than the $US604 billion proposed by the White House.
The top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, Ben Cardin, said enough members of Congress would oppose such a plan to kill it, even though Republicans had majorities in both houses of Congress.
Trump was due to set out his broad agenda in a speech to Congress at 9pm on Tuesday (1pm AEDT on Wednesday).
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