By Idrees Ali, Patricia Zengerle and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – The cost of the United States’ war in Iran has risen to $37.5 billion so far, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, as he faced skeptical lawmakers for the first time since heavy bombings resumed to seek urgent funding for the unpopular conflict.
With just six months before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump’s Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House of Representatives and Senate majorities, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the unpopular Iran war with affordability.
Hegseth told lawmakers at a hearing in Washington that the $37.5 billion included certain aspects of the war as well as anticipated costs through September 30.
It was unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the figure. A source told Reuters in March that Trump’s administration estimated the first six days of the war had cost at least $11.3 billion.
Trump asked Congress last month for nearly $90 billion in additional funding, most of it related to the Iran conflict, setting the stage for another fight with lawmakers frustrated with the war and facing the November midterms.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have complained since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28 that Trump and his team have not kept them informed about the conflict or his plans.
“The president is threatening escalation and war crimes, and suggesting this could be another forever war,” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said at the hearing. Trump has repeatedly issued severe threats against Iran, including against civilian infrastructure, which critics say would be a war crime.
Trump’s Republicans hold such slim margins in the House and Senate that appropriations bills typically need Democratic support to pass.
“The reason why they (people) are so upset with you and this administration is because the words you have used in the past don’t add up,” Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said. “It’s either over, or it’s not over. It’s within two weeks, or it’s not two weeks, it’s either missiles or it’s not missiles.”
IMPACT OF WAR
Hegseth also told lawmakers that military training would need to be curtailed without an urgent funding boost.
The war has strained the Pentagon’s nearly $1 trillion budget and risks funding for military personnel matters. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, acknowledged that potential cost during the hearing, saying that while they would figure out how to pay service members, the Pentagon could struggle with maintenance costs as well as investing in future capabilities.
Hegseth called on lawmakers to not just fund the supplemental request but also a $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027.
“Not funding this department at $1.5 trillion, I believe, is the greatest threat that our nation faces,” Hegseth said.
A fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran collapsed earlier this month and both sides have been carrying out daily strikes against each other.
The number of U.S. troops killed in the war on Iran rose to 18 over the weekend, while roughly 430 U.S. troops have been injured. The Pentagon said on Monday that 100 service members were injured since July 7, but that 96% have returned to duty.
In the past week, Trump has threatened to expand the targets being struck in Iran to include energy plants and bridges, send ground forces to seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
On Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. would take out the mountain facility “pretty soon.”
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Patricia Zengerle, and Ryan Jones; Editing by Nia Williams and Lincoln Feast.)
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