Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the Iran war has cost $25 billion to date, the first public price tag the Trump administration has put on a two-month conflict that began in late February and remains under a three-week-old ceasefire. The figure was disclosed by Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst in Hegseth's first congressional appearance since the fighting started.
The hearing, called to vet a $1.5 trillion 2027 Pentagon budget request, became the first sustained accounting of a campaign that has shut the Strait of Hormuz, pushed Brent crude past $126 a barrel and left diplomacy stalled after a single round of formal talks brokered through Pakistan.
The price tag
Hurst told Rep. Adam Smith, the Washington Democrat who is the panel's ranking member, that $25 billion was the Pentagon's current estimate and that "most of that is in munitions." The Pentagon says U.S. forces struck about 13,000 targets in Iran before President Trump declared a ceasefire on April 7. Hurst said the department "will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress" once a full assessment is complete.
Pressed on when the conflict would end, Hegseth offered no timeline. He told Smith the U.S. had to stare down an enemy bent on a nuclear weapon and force it to the table, and said Iran's "nuclear facilities have been obliterated," including buried stockpiles of highly enriched uranium hit in U.S. air strikes last June. Asked repeatedly about the cost, Hegseth answered with a question of his own: "What is it worth to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon?"
Partisan split
The hearing exposed the sharpest congressional divide over the war to date. Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat, called the conflict a "quagmire of another war in the Middle East." Hegseth replied that such language hands propaganda to U.S. enemies and described the "reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats" as a greater adversary than Iran itself.
Rep. Ro Khanna, also a California Democrat, pressed Hegseth on what the war would add to American gasoline and grocery bills over the next year. Hegseth declined to estimate, telling Khanna he was playing gotcha questions about domestic matters. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who will question Hegseth at a Senate Armed Services hearing Thursday, told Fox News Digital the $25 billion figure sounded low to him.
Republicans largely defended the secretary, though not uniformly. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, joined Democrats in voicing concern over the firings of senior military and civilian leaders, including Navy Secretary John Phelan, ousted last week, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George. Bacon said the dismissals may be constitutionally permitted but do not make the moves wise.
What hangs on it
The disclosure lands as the 60-day clock under the War Powers Resolution expires Friday, and as Senate Democrats have forced weekly floor votes seeking to terminate hostilities. Republicans have repeatedly sided with the president. Trump this week rejected an Iranian offer to reopen the strait in exchange for a U.S. lifting of its naval blockade and a pause in nuclear talks, saying that "there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons."
The administration's stated rationale remains unchanged: an Iranian bomb is unacceptable. Hegseth told the panel Iran "had not given up their nuclear ambitions" even after the strikes he described as obliterating its program, and Republicans including Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi back the budget as needed to rebuild munitions manufacturing depleted by the campaign.
Democrats counter that the Pentagon's $25 billion captures only direct military outlays. Brent crude briefly topped $126 a barrel Thursday, a four-year high, before easing; Khanna argued at the hearing that household costs from higher gasoline and food prices would dwarf the munitions bill and accused the administration of betraying Trump's campaign promise to lower the cost of living.
Hegseth testifies Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where the same questions about how the war ends will get a second airing on day 59 of the campaign the Pentagon has code-named Operation Epic Fury.