Trump administration withholds Iran war costs but wants historic $441 billion more for Defense

The Trump administration has requested the largest year-over-year increase in defense spending since World War II while declining to disclose how much it has spent on the war with Iran. Administration officials have said those costs will be included in a separate, future funding request to Congress. 

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The historic spending increase request comes after the administration has failed over the last six weeks to provide information to lawmakers on how much it has spent on its war with Iran, two members of Congress and a congressional official told MS NOW. They also said the damage to U.S. military bases from Iranian missiles and drone attacks is far more extensive than the administration has publicly revealed.

As part of its proposed $1.5 trillion fiscal 2026 budget request, administration officials created a new defense spending category called “presidential priorities,” such as President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system, the effectiveness of which has been questioned by some experts.

The request for a historic spending increase comes as Democrats have said members of both chambers of Congress have grown exasperated by a lack of information regarding the conduct and cost of the United States’ war with Iran.

“Members of the Senate are frustrated beyond words and increasingly furious about the stonewalling,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told MS NOW. 

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said the same frustration exists in the House.

“We have received no information on the cost of the war,” Smith told MS NOW. “We keep asking. They keep ignoring us.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on the criticism from Democrats.

The new budget also includes a request for $74 billion in U.S. drone spending, triple the amount the Pentagon currently spends. It also includes $30 billion to replace depleted critical munitions, such as missile interceptor systems that use missiles, which cost millions of dollars each.

“It’s critical that we innovate as we look at the drones,” Lt. Gen. Steven P. Whitney, joint staff director of force structure, resources and assessment, said at a Pentagon press conference where the budget request was announced. “This evolution in technology is in a timeframe of weeks, not the typical years that we see with our defense production.”

A recent estimate by congressional staffers put the current cost of the Iran war at roughly $50 billion, citing munitions fired, operation and maintenance and damage to U.S. facilities and hardware, according to a congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The officials said Iranian drone and missile attacks have done “vastly more damage” to U.S. equipment and bases, for example, than what has been publicly reported.

Jules Hurst, the acting Pentagon comptroller, said at the Pentagon press conference that rebuilding U.S. bases in the region would also be a separate funding request to Congress. 

“We have to make sure we understand what we want to construct in the future,” he said. “We might change how we build bases in the Middle East based on this conflict.”

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Some publicly disclosed accounts of damaged or destroyed U.S. aircraft provide a glimpse into the price tag (based on costs adjusted for inflation to 2026 dollars) for lost planes.

The cost of a KC-135 aerial refueling jet, two of which crashed in a refueling accident, is between $75 million and $80 million each. The cost of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, one of which was shot down by Iranian forces earlier this month, would be roughly $63 million today. Two MC-130J aircraft, which each cost at least $100 million, were lost in the rescue mission for a U.S. air crew member who was shot down over Iran.

And the cost to build an E3-Sentry (AWACS) aerial radar plane, at least one of which was destroyed at an Air Force base in Saudi Arabia, was $270 million in 1998. Due to their age, however, the U.S. military is replacing them with a newer E-7 model that costs upward of $700 million apiece.

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“Obviously, Democrats are frustrated, and so are Republicans,” the official said. “No one in Congress has been briefed in any significant way.”

In a closed-door briefing with lawmakers on March 10, Defense Department officials told members of Congress that the first six days of the war cost over $11 billion. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported the administration planned to ask Congress for $80 billion to $100 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of the war.

Last week, in testimony before the House and Senate, White House Budget Director Russell Vought declined to give estimates for the cost of the war.

“We’re not ready to come to you with a request. We’re still working on it,” he told a hearing of the House Budget Committee last Wednesday. “We’re working through to figure out what’s needed.”

Asked by senators for a general cost range last Thursday, Vought said, “I’m not going to give you a range because I don’t want to be inaccurate.”

Blumenthal said he agreed the damage to U.S. bases and equipment is more extensive than the Pentagon has disclosed and that senators on both sides of the aisle are frustrated by the lack of information.

“There has been vastly more damage to American equipment and bases than the DOD has made public,” Blumenthal told MS NOW. “I also believe that the costs have been underestimated generally.”

Julia Jester

Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.

David Rohde

David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.