Assistant Secretary of Defense Jules Hurst finally shared the Pentagon’s estimated cost for the U.S. military actions in Iran, and the number is huge.
During a hearing with the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Hurst said, “We’re spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury.
Most of that is for weapons, and part of it is for operations and maintaining equipment, as well as replacing it.”
Hurst said the Pentagon plans to create a new funding request to the White House once they have a full understanding of the total cost of the conflict.
The Department of Defense had previously asked for $200 billion for the war.
under questioning from Rep. Smith, a DoD official estimates the cost of the Iran war so far is $25 billion pic.twitter.com/aDzsLXIkpB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2026
Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state and the ranking member of the committee, had asked the Pentagon to give an estimate.
He was surprised to get the number so quickly. “I’m glad you answered that question because we’ve been asking for it for a long time and no one has given us that number,” he said.
As Trump’s military campaign in Iran approaches its 60th day, the Pentagon has not given real cost estimates since it claimed to have spent over $11.3 billion in just the first six days.
Every dollar spent on this war has come from American taxpayers and was done without approval from Congress.
The American Center for Progress previously estimated that by the end of March, the war had already cost $25 billion.
For reference, the group said that amount could cover Medicare for 3,106,000 people for a whole year, or provide free school lunches to 29,614,000 children, or house 3,147,000 people in Section 8 housing.
Instead, Trump used that money for weapons, even while telling Americans there wasn’t enough money for childcare, Medicaid, or Medicare.
For the amount the Pentagon spent on this war, the government could have provided free childcare for 1,780,000 children for a year.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
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