Plus, moon landings are popular.
Congress does have the power on this one. This is an appropriations request. Congress routinely declares appropriations requests dead-on-arrival, and rewrites them to whatever it wants. It's easy for them to put things back.
The President can, of course, veto it, but only as a whole. Which leads to the nearly-annual ritual of government shutdowns, which rarely go well for the party in power.
So, I don't know what will happen here. Congress may just roll over, but that's gonna go badly in 2026.
I hope you’re right re: 2026.