Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee last week, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought said the US had spent $30 billion on the Iran War. The real cost is over $100 billion.
The Trump administration has offered Congress lowball war cost estimates before. On May 12, Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst, testifying alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, said the war had cost $29 billion. On April 29, Hurst said it was $25 billion. Despite repeated congressional requests, neither Hurst nor Hegseth has provided supporting documentation for the estimate. Vought hasn’t either.
The Trump administration itself has admitted that the war has cost far more than $30 billion. On June 24 — a week before Vought’s testimony — the White House formally requested $88 billion in supplemental funding from Congress, including $72 billion for the Iran War. No doubt Vought was aware of this funding request; after all, he wrote it — his signature appears on the second page.
Throughout the conflict, the cost of the Iran War has been habitually understated. Establishment media have parroted Hegseth’s defactualized cost estimates and similarly low estimates from establishment think tanks. The estimate that came closest to the Trump administration’s requested $72 billion for the war came from Popular Information. In May, we estimated the Iran War had cost $71.8 billion.