When the White House unveils President Donald Trump’s full budget plan next week, just one thing will be missing: the president, The Hill reported today. Trump is set to begin his first foreign trip as president on Friday, a journey that will take him to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Europe. It means he’ll be away from Washington when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) releases his blueprint, which it is scheduled to do next week. In most years, the president takes part in the budget rollout, which is a political wish list of sorts, a document rich in importance that shows how the administration is seeking to move its agenda and keep its campaign promises. While the budget director usually does the heavy lifting at the document’s unveiling, the president often plays a central role in selling the policy. Things tend to work differently in the first year of an administration, and this year in particular the budget schedule has been off-kilter, in part because of the need to pass a spending bill for 2017 and avert a government shutdown in May. In Trump’s absence, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney will seek to keep the focus on the things he wants to highlight, such as spending cuts, tax reforms and plans to build a wall along the southern border. However, some outsiders say it’s best for presidents to have an arm’s-length distance from their own budgets.
