WASHINGTON — President Trump asked every cabinet secretary to take a 5 percent budget cut next year in response to the ballooning budget deficit.

Trump told top agency officials about his cost-cutting goals during a White House cabinet meeting Wednesday.

“Get rid of the fat, get rid of the waste,” Trump said.

“It’ll have a huge impact.”

The proposal came days after the Trump administration announced a $779 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2018 — a six-year high and a 17 percent jump from the prior year.

Trump told reporters he had to spend money on the military last year because it was “falling apart” and also had to splash money on some Democratic priorities to secure their votes.

Trump declined to fault his deficit-growing tax plan as a reason for the fiscal problems.

The Treasury Department reported that spending outlays increased $127 billion from 2017 to 2018, while tax revenue remained nearly flat.

That’s because the GOP-led Congress passed Trump’s tax plan that slashed corporate income tax rates from 35 to 21 percent. That meant corporate taxes collected dropped by 31 percent in one year, or $92 billion.

The US national debt now tops $21 trillion.

Budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former deficit hawk in Congress, called the growing deficit a “blunt warning to Congress of the dire consequences of irresponsible and unnecessary spending.”

Notable spending increases were a $65 billion increase in interest on the public debt, $39 billion more in Social Security outlays for America’s seniors, and a yearly budget boost of $32 billion at the Department of Defense.

Trump said Wednesday that even the Pentagon wouldn’t be immune to cost-cutting proposals.

Any administration funding proposal would have to be approved by Congress.