Debate in Washington over the cost of the war in Iran escalated on Thursday as a new possible price tag of $200 billion began to circulate among policymakers.
The figure isn’t final but could represent the Trump administration’s eventual request to Congress — a “supplemental funding bill,” in Washington parlance — to cover additional costs stemming from the war.
The Washington Post was first to report the eye-popping figure, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday defended the number, which would be on top of the Pentagon’s $1 trillion annual budget.
“It takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth told reporters, with President Trump later seeming to endorse the figure.
“This kind of funding bill is going to ensure that we’re properly funded going forward,” Hegseth added.
The new figure drew immediate pushback, as it appears to suggest that the military is preparing for an extended engagement in the region. Trump officials previously told lawmakers that in the first week of the war, the costs were about $11.3 billion, or nearly $2 billion a day.
The $200 billion figure exceeds all of what the US has spent in support of Ukraine since that war began. A recent Council on Foreign Relations report found that $188 billion has been spent there since 2022.
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Previous guesses about the Pentagon’s request were closer to $100 billion. The higher figure was met with skepticism among even some of Trump’s allies.
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said Thursday morning on Fox Business that $200 billion on top of the Pentagon’s current budget “sounds like a high number to me.”
It also came amid an increasing sense that achieving a quick end to the conflict in Iran will be harder than the Trump administration has promised.
Iran continues to exercise an effective veto in shipping traffic in the crucial Strait of Hormuz and launched new attacks on oil infrastructure this week in a back-and-forth with US and Israeli forces that has kept oil prices above $100 per barrel.
Hegseth pledged little change in the ongoing attacks on Thursday, saying, “We will finish this.”
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Few expect a request for additional funds from Congress to be easy.
Democrats pledged to block the funding request even before the $200 billion figure began circulating on Thursday.