I mean, the $25 billion figure comes from an administration that lies compulsively and from a department in the DoD that has failed eight consecutive audits. Ain't no way it was going to be accurate. It's still alarming, though, that the gulf between what Pop Info has observed and what Hegseth told Congress is more than the amount he's citing itself.
Only last month Trump asked Congress for another $400 billion for defense. The month before that, Hegseth asked for $200 billion for the war.
The only explanations for Keggie's ridiculous lowball estimate, are that: A) He's lying through his fricking teeth; or that B) he's utterly clueless about what US smart munitions actually cost.
Also: Judd's estimates that $11 BILLION in American military assets have been destroyed--or damaged beyond repair--is absolutely staggering. Dems should be all over this one.
It's pretty clear that we joined the Israelis in our surprise attack on Iran before sufficient military assets had been assembled in-theatre. Heggie basically had a premature military ejaculation. Our Gulf bases had inadequate anti-air capabilities; and there wasn't a single functioning minesweeper on station.
If they are lying about munitions and operational costs, they are lying about American deaths. Is there any precedent for this? Has the American public been lied to about war casualties before?
Seventy-two billion dollars in sixty days. One-point-two billion a day.
The Pentagon told Congress twenty-five, then leaked fifty, and the real number is north of seventy. They cannot even keep their own lies aligned for forty-eight hours.
Ask what the money bought….
Dead civilians. A wrecked nonproliferation regime. A region more unstable than when we started. And the slow severing of the United States from the stable trade and security architecture it spent eighty years building, the one thing that ever justified the dollar’s place at the center of the world.
We did not buy a victory. We bought an exit ramp from our own hegemony, at retail.
The kicker is that this is only direct cost. No veterans’ care. No interest on the debt we floated to pay for it. No counting the allies who watched and quietly started pricing other options.
The bill for sixty days will be paid for sixty years.
No one outside of the Fox bubble believed the $25B number. Why should they? Hegseth, like everyone associated with the Trump regime, lies about everything. I'm surprised that the real number isn't higher than the estimate you have provided.
As the article says, the real costs are much higher. The $72 billion is only an estimate of direct costs (which continue to increase every day). Indirect costs are bigger than the direct costs.
It is higher, much higher. Sometimes loss doesn't come with a price tag. So many comments here talk about the real cost: the broken alliances, the instability in the area, the hatred toward America, and yes, the karma when a schoolyard bully kicks another kid and then goes and kicks their puppy, too. The ripple effect over time of bad will and righteous hearts of vengeance...what, we are the only ones who can plan, proliferate and wait?
That bad man Biden finally got a build bridges and roads bill through Congress and I cursed at road work for the next eighteen months until the work overlapped the election and the workers trickled down to nothing. How many tens of thousands of bridges in America need immediate repair? How many are closed? In my small town, there are two crosstown bridges closed indefinitely. Yes, local stuff, but that federal infrastructure money does help.
If the cost of the war were 0 it would still be a bad choice. Countries build nuclear weapons as a deterrence to attacks. Attacking them just incentivizes them to build them. JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a better plan than will ever be achieved going forward. America is heading for a future where we find ourselves unable to afford enough of the 6 million missiles to counter the overwhelming barrage of cheap drones. The idiots in charge are too stupid to see that modern warfare has changed.
We know that the Queens real estate mob boss sundowning as President and his sycophantic administration and their self empretzeling friends in Congress are pathological liars. We also know that there are truths with regard to all big systems of power that have existed for as long as humans have created them. I accept that there is specious accounting in the US military like I accept that the Pope wears a long white dress. Some truths are just more important. The US military budget has never in my lifetime passed an audit. I am neither shocked nor surprised that the numbers don’t add up. I am also not shocked that the administration adamantly lies about their accounting.
Thanks Judd for these figures. I never listen to anything anyone in this administration says since they lie constantly. Good to have a source with facts.
⦿ What would happen if Iran said “All non-American ships carrying fertilizer can pass. We don’t want to cause a world famine.” Then Trump would have to decide if he’d block them…possibly contributing to global starvation. Quite the PR implications.
⦿ Assuming we can create a military safe passage (air and naval escorts), how much would that add to each barrel of crude? You can pay at the pump or you can pay with your taxes.
(I'm ignoring the lost funding for food, healthcare, and infrastructure others have already documented).
Great reporting Judd! Will be looking to see what major media’s pick up story. We are flying blind with the stooges in this White House. Joseph, Mark, and HM great points!
Spread the words from Judd’s investigative reporting.
Hey Maga! Get your sons ready because come December, they will be drafted and they will be fighting on the ground in another godforsaken place in the desert.
You know those "war crimes and crimes against humanity" trials "people are saying" need to happen if and when this fever of debauchery passes? They really should include members of the Legislative Branch "advising and consenting" to these crimes.
I mean, the $25 billion figure comes from an administration that lies compulsively and from a department in the DoD that has failed eight consecutive audits. Ain't no way it was going to be accurate. It's still alarming, though, that the gulf between what Pop Info has observed and what Hegseth told Congress is more than the amount he's citing itself.
Only last month Trump asked Congress for another $400 billion for defense. The month before that, Hegseth asked for $200 billion for the war.
The only explanations for Keggie's ridiculous lowball estimate, are that: A) He's lying through his fricking teeth; or that B) he's utterly clueless about what US smart munitions actually cost.
Also: Judd's estimates that $11 BILLION in American military assets have been destroyed--or damaged beyond repair--is absolutely staggering. Dems should be all over this one.
It's pretty clear that we joined the Israelis in our surprise attack on Iran before sufficient military assets had been assembled in-theatre. Heggie basically had a premature military ejaculation. Our Gulf bases had inadequate anti-air capabilities; and there wasn't a single functioning minesweeper on station.
If they are lying about munitions and operational costs, they are lying about American deaths. Is there any precedent for this? Has the American public been lied to about war casualties before?
Seventy-two billion dollars in sixty days. One-point-two billion a day.
The Pentagon told Congress twenty-five, then leaked fifty, and the real number is north of seventy. They cannot even keep their own lies aligned for forty-eight hours.
Ask what the money bought….
Dead civilians. A wrecked nonproliferation regime. A region more unstable than when we started. And the slow severing of the United States from the stable trade and security architecture it spent eighty years building, the one thing that ever justified the dollar’s place at the center of the world.
We did not buy a victory. We bought an exit ramp from our own hegemony, at retail.
The kicker is that this is only direct cost. No veterans’ care. No interest on the debt we floated to pay for it. No counting the allies who watched and quietly started pricing other options.
The bill for sixty days will be paid for sixty years.
Johan 🐌
Former foreign service officer
The Trump Administration has spent $72 billion in two months on the Iran War.
Its 2027 budget for the Department of Education is $76.5 billion.
IOW, they've spent about six times as much bombing schools and making children homeless in Iran as they will spend educating children in the US.
well said
No one outside of the Fox bubble believed the $25B number. Why should they? Hegseth, like everyone associated with the Trump regime, lies about everything. I'm surprised that the real number isn't higher than the estimate you have provided.
As the article says, the real costs are much higher. The $72 billion is only an estimate of direct costs (which continue to increase every day). Indirect costs are bigger than the direct costs.
It is higher, much higher. Sometimes loss doesn't come with a price tag. So many comments here talk about the real cost: the broken alliances, the instability in the area, the hatred toward America, and yes, the karma when a schoolyard bully kicks another kid and then goes and kicks their puppy, too. The ripple effect over time of bad will and righteous hearts of vengeance...what, we are the only ones who can plan, proliferate and wait?
I’m sure DOGE is all over this.
Pete say $25M, Judd say $72B… can we agree those billions could fix a lot of roads& bridges, or dare I say it feed a lot of folks…
That bad man Biden finally got a build bridges and roads bill through Congress and I cursed at road work for the next eighteen months until the work overlapped the election and the workers trickled down to nothing. How many tens of thousands of bridges in America need immediate repair? How many are closed? In my small town, there are two crosstown bridges closed indefinitely. Yes, local stuff, but that federal infrastructure money does help.
If the cost of the war were 0 it would still be a bad choice. Countries build nuclear weapons as a deterrence to attacks. Attacking them just incentivizes them to build them. JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a better plan than will ever be achieved going forward. America is heading for a future where we find ourselves unable to afford enough of the 6 million missiles to counter the overwhelming barrage of cheap drones. The idiots in charge are too stupid to see that modern warfare has changed.
I fear that we will all see modern warfare before long. I know if I was an Iranian where my mind would be.
We know that the Queens real estate mob boss sundowning as President and his sycophantic administration and their self empretzeling friends in Congress are pathological liars. We also know that there are truths with regard to all big systems of power that have existed for as long as humans have created them. I accept that there is specious accounting in the US military like I accept that the Pope wears a long white dress. Some truths are just more important. The US military budget has never in my lifetime passed an audit. I am neither shocked nor surprised that the numbers don’t add up. I am also not shocked that the administration adamantly lies about their accounting.
Hegseth: "What's an audit?"
lol
Thanks Judd for these figures. I never listen to anything anyone in this administration says since they lie constantly. Good to have a source with facts.
or the GOP.
Thank you PI for these figures.
[off topic kindof]
⦿ What would happen if Iran said “All non-American ships carrying fertilizer can pass. We don’t want to cause a world famine.” Then Trump would have to decide if he’d block them…possibly contributing to global starvation. Quite the PR implications.
⦿ Assuming we can create a military safe passage (air and naval escorts), how much would that add to each barrel of crude? You can pay at the pump or you can pay with your taxes.
(I'm ignoring the lost funding for food, healthcare, and infrastructure others have already documented).
Harvard expert Linda Bilmes estimates ultimate cost of Trump’s Iran blunder to exceed $1 trillion.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/14/iran-war-cost-us-taxpayer-trillion-harvard.html
Great reporting Judd! Will be looking to see what major media’s pick up story. We are flying blind with the stooges in this White House. Joseph, Mark, and HM great points!
Spread the words from Judd’s investigative reporting.
And the grift continues.......
Hey Maga! Get your sons ready because come December, they will be drafted and they will be fighting on the ground in another godforsaken place in the desert.
Naval blockade to “free” oil tankers is a separate “project”/war from the “excursion” to end Iranian civilization? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oywjaN8FdpA
You know those "war crimes and crimes against humanity" trials "people are saying" need to happen if and when this fever of debauchery passes? They really should include members of the Legislative Branch "advising and consenting" to these crimes.
This timeline sucks.