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The Trump administration is seeking a whopping $200 billion supplement for the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, asking for Congress to shell out taxpayer money for a historically unpopular war that is already causing major price hikes that will only worsen as the war goes on.
The Washington Post first reported the request to Congress, citing a senior administration official and three other sources, adding that it is one of several that have been circulated in recent weeks. The Associated Press also reported the request, citing a senior administration official. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not deny the amount when asked about it at a press conference on Thursday morning, and suggested that it could even become higher.
The request is extraordinarily high, especially for a war that has drawn scrutiny over for its already high price tag, less than three weeks in. According to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, the war cost $12 billion in the first week; the Post reported that the U.S. dropped $5.6 billion of munitions alone in the first two days of the war.
One estimate reported by The Atlantic early in the war was that it is costing the U.S. $1 billion a day. According to the Institute for Policy Studies’s National Priorities Project, this is enough to cover the daily costs of Medicaid for all of the estimated 16 million people cut from the program due to the GOP’s cuts, as well as the entire daily costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which covers 41 million people.
The supplement, if passed, would be “taking food and healthcare from struggling families here and using it to bomb families in Iran that were already struggling under that country’s authoritarian regime and U.S. sanctions,” said National Priorities Project Director Lindsay Koshgarian in a statement to Truthout.
The latest request is “more than enough” to cover millions of people kicked off of Medicaid by the GOP bill, Koshgarian said.
It could cover over a fifth of the $900 billion that Republicans cut from Medicaid over the next decade in their One Big Beautiful Bill last year. This is enough to cover more than two years of life-saving health coverage for tens of millions of Americans.
It comes on top of the Trump administration’s already record-shattering request for $1.5 trillion in Pentagon and military funding for next year.
It also comes on top of skyrocketing prices caused directly by the U.S. and Israel’s bombardments. Gas prices have soared since the U.S. and Israel’s first attacks, going from a national average of $2.98 a gallon on February 28 to $3.88 a gallon as of Thursday, according to AAA — nearly a $1 rise in less than three weeks’ time. These costs are expected to continue their upward climb as the U.S. and Israel bring the war into a new phase of directly targeting oil and gas facilities.
Other prices are also rising, causing pain for everyday Americans already struggling to get by due to the U.S.’s affordability crisis. Flight prices are rising due to rising jet fuel costs, rises in utility costs that have hit Europe may soon reach the U.S., and grocery prices, already increasing, may soon see massive increases due to fertilizer shortages caused by closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The worsening of affordability issues is coming in service of a war that is devastating Iran, killing and maiming thousands, forcibly displacing up to 3.2 million people so far, and potentially pushing 45 million people into acute hunger in the next months if the war continues.
“For those of us old enough to remember the lies that led us into war in Iraq more than 20 years ago, this feels like the worst kind of deja vu. And just like with Iraq, we were sold the war under the premise that it would be over quickly, but this new request for $200 billion makes it clear that Hegseth is planning to keep at it,” Koshgarian said.
The request for the supplement is so large that reports say it may not even receive full support from Republicans in Congress. The Post reports that “[s]ome White House officials do not think the Pentagon’s request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress.”
Congressional Republicans “have signaled support for the forthcoming supplemental request but haven’t committed to a legislative strategy,” the publication wrote. Even if the funding could pass the House, it may face long odds of passing the Senate, where it would require 60 votes, and thus substantial support from Democrats.
Polling has found that public support for the war is dismal, and influential right-wing voices have spoken out against the war. There is already evidence of fractures within the administration on the issue, with Trump’s top “counterterrorism” official resigning this week in protest of the war.
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