President Donald Trump says he'll ask Cabinet to cut department budgets by 5 percent

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would cut the federal budget with the help of his Cabinet, a proposal that analysts said was aspirational at best and unlikely to affect the skyrocketing federal deficit.

"We're going to ask every Cabinet secretary to cut 5 percent for next year," Trump said before a Cabinet meeting at the White House. 

The president's request is likely for his fiscal 2020 budget proposal, which is due to Congress early next year.

Although Trump can ask his Cabinet secretaries to cut their budget proposals, the federal budget is approved by Congress. Lawmakers are free to draw up their own spending plans for federal agencies and the rest of the government.

The president does have the leverage of his veto. After approving the $1.3 trillion budget plan Congress sent him in March, Trump threatened he would “never sign another bill like this again.”