The Pentagon is asking Congress for an additional $200 billion to fund the US-Israel war with Iran, but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has warned there is no “time limit” for the conflict to end.
Asked about the figure on Thursday, Hegseth did not directly confirm the amount but said it was subject to change.
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“If we get to $200 billion, I think that number could move. Obviously, you need money to kill the bad guys,” Hegseth said. “We will go back to Congress and the people there to ensure that what has been done and what must be done in the future is adequately funded.”
The Associated Press and the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon had requested the amount from the White House.
This is an unusually high number and is on top of additional funding the Pentagon already received last year as part of President Donald Trump’s July tax cut bill. Such a request would require parliamentary approval, but it is far from clear that there would be political support for such spending.
Congress is bracing for new spending demands, but it’s not yet clear whether the White House has communicated the war proposal, which Mr. Hegseth declined to provide a timeline for.
“We don’t want to set a hard deadline,” Hegseth said at a news conference, adding that “we’re making very good progress,” adding that it’s up to President Trump to decide when to stop.
“Whether we can say we’ve accomplished what we set out to do will ultimately depend on the president’s choices.”
He added that the US had already struck more than 7,000 targets across Iran and that Thursday would be the “largest attack package to date.”
But Congress has not authorized war, and there are growing concerns about the scope and strategy of military operations.
Congress is controlled by the president’s Republican Party, but many conservative members are also fiscal hawks and have little political appetite for large spending on military operations and other issues.
Most Democrats are likely to reject such a request and demand a more detailed plan for military strategy and goals.
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, a member of the House subcommittee that oversees defense spending, was among those who said she would seek information about the war effort before considering new funding.
“This is not going to be a rubber stamp for the president of the United States,” she said.
The request would represent a significant increase in the Pentagon’s annual budget, with Congress approving more than $800 billion this fiscal year.
This is on top of the roughly $150 billion that Congress gave the Pentagon in last year’s tax cut bill, much of which is earmarked for specific projects or to strengthen the department’s overall operations.
At a press conference Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump himself defended the spending request as necessary. He also stressed that the request stemmed from needs beyond “travel” to Iran.
“We’re looking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran. This is a very volatile world,” Trump told reporters.
The Republican president then appeared to blame his predecessor Joe Biden and U.S. aid to Ukraine for the need for increased military spending.
“We want to have a tremendous amount of ammunition,” Trump said. “We have a lot now, but we gave too much to Ukraine and it’s gone.”
His comments generally downplayed the costs that the war against Iran was imposing on U.S. military supplies.
“If we wanted to, we could end this in two seconds. But we are acting very carefully,” he added.
Some of the military’s biggest defenders on Capitol Hill have hailed the new spending as a way to improve America’s defenses in the face of new threats, while others have pointed to health care and other domestic needs that they see as more important priorities.
Still, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Thursday that he was open to supporting the proposal, although he told reporters he had not considered the details of the funding request.
“I support what is necessary to keep the American people safe,” Johnson said.
Speaking alongside Hegseth, the top US military official, General Dan Cain, provided details about the weapons being used against Iran and its allies in the region.
Kaine said the A-10 Warthog, a type of aircraft designed to provide close air support, was “hunting and killing fast-attack vessels” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade artery that Iran effectively cut off maritime traffic after the war began.
He also said AH-64 Apaches are being used to target Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq, and some U.S. allies have begun using attack helicopters to counter one-way drones launched by Iranian forces.
