U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference at the Pentagon on March 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the Pentagon’s reported $200 billion budget request for war costs against Iran “could move.”
“It costs money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said at a news conference when asked to confirm the numbers, which The Washington Post first reported Wednesday night.
“We’re going to go back to Congress and the people there to make sure we have adequate funding,” Hegseth said.
MS NOW reported early Thursday, citing two Congressional sources, that a request for up to $200 billion in funding from the Trump administration had been privately floated, but no formal request had yet been made.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told MS NOW in a phone interview that the number “has been discussed privately by administration officials.”
As of Sunday, the U.S. military campaign against Iran, which began on February 28, had already cost $12 billion, according to Kevin Hassett, director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council.
Hassett said at the time on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that he didn’t think the U.S. needed to ask Congress for more funding for the war effort “right now.”
The Post, citing senior administration officials, said the Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a request to Congress for more than $200 billion to fund the escalating war.
The huge figure will increase production of a key weapon that the United States and Israel have used to attack thousands of targets since the conflict began, three other people familiar with the matter told the Post.
Hegseth said Thursday that future requests to Congress will ensure the U.S. military is funded “to do what has been done, what we must do going forward, and to ensure that our munitions are fully replenished and not just replenished.”
He said the United States has so far struck more than 7,000 targets across Iran, but indicated that operations would expand further in the coming days.
“Today, like yesterday, will be the biggest strike ever,” he said. “While our capabilities continue to strengthen, Iran continues to deteriorate. We hunt and attack. Death and destruction from the air.”
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