Pentagon seeks $200 billion in Iran war, Pete Hegseth says America ‘is winning’

The request has been sent to the White House for review and has not yet been signed by President Donald Trump, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Asked Thursday about the number, Hegseth did not deny it but said it could change.

“It costs money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to go back to Congress and our staff to make sure we get the appropriate funding.”

If approved by Congress, the $200 billion supplemental spending bill would be the largest since the 2020 coronavirus relief bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Washington Post first reported the figure.

The amount is far higher than the estimated $65 billion the U.S. has spent on Ukraine security assistance since 2022, a sign that the administration expects to take long-term action against Iran. It will likely face resistance from congressional Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans.

It could also be a potential liability for Trump, who has long criticized his predecessors for plunging the United States into so-called “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan and campaigned on not sparking new conflicts during his first term. During his second term, he launched attacks in Yemen, Nigeria, Syria and Somalia, as well as attacks on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and successive attacks on Iran.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to increase military spending, and last year he said he wanted to increase the annual defense budget by $500 billion to $1.5 trillion. That runs counter to his push to deploy Elon Musk’s Department of Government Effectiveness to cut costs across government, especially early in his administration.

U.S. officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the war with Iran cost more than $11.3 billion, a figure that drew criticism from lawmakers including Democratic Senator Andy King of New Jersey, who said it meant billions of dollars “were not spent on meeting our needs.”

Hegseth dismissed the criticism at a press conference on Thursday. He said the U.S. campaign was proceeding as planned and attacked the media for unfairly casting doubt on Trump’s approach.

“The media here – not all, but most – would like you to think that, just 19 days into this conflict, we are somehow spinning into an endless abyss, a forever war or a quagmire,” Hegseth told a news conference Thursday morning. “That’s not the case.”

Hegers said the United States was “achieving a decisive victory” by destroying Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, navy and submarines. He declined to answer questions about a specific time frame but said the United States was “on track” with “clear objectives” and would end the conflict “at a time of the president’s ultimate choosing.”

Hegseth also lashed out at European allies who have largely rejected President Donald Trump’s pleas for help regulating the Strait of Hormuz as threats from Iran have effectively closed the waterway critical to global oil and gas tanker traffic.

“The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe and even parts of our own media have one thing to say to President Trump – thank you,” Hegseth said.