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Takeaways From Hegseth’s Testimony on Iran War and His Tenure
Takeaways
From Hegseth’s Testimony on Iran War and His Tenure
It was
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first public appearance before Congress since
Operation Epic Fury began in late February.
John
IsmayMegan Mineiro
By John
Ismay and Megan Mineiro
John
Ismay covers the Pentagon and reported from Washington. Megan Mineiro covers
Congress and reported from the Capitol.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/politics/hegseth-congress-hearing-takeaways.html
April 29,
2026
In his
first major public appearance before Congress since the beginning of the Iran
war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the biggest
adversary the United States faced was not Iran’s military, but the “feckless
and defeatist words” of Democrats and some Republican lawmakers.
It was a
preview of what turned out to be a contentious debate over the Iran war.
The
Defense Department’s nearly $1.45 trillion budget request was ostensibly the
reason for the House Armed Services Committee hearing, but lawmakers made
little mention of it during several hours of questioning.
Mr.
Hegseth offered a full-throated defense of “Operation Epic Fury,” which began
on Feb. 28. Sitting next to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and Jay Hurst, the Pentagon comptroller, Mr. Hegseth repeatedly stressed
that the war was necessary because Iran posed an “existential threat” to the
United States.
The
defense secretary grew testy during the hearing and mocked the questions of
Democratic lawmakers, prompting a rare admonition from the committee chairman.
Here are
the main takeaways from the hearing.
The Iran
war has cost $25 billion so far, according to the Pentagon.
Mr. Hurst
said that figure is mostly representative of the tens of thousands of bombs and
missiles used in the conflict. It was the first time the Defense Department has
publicly provided a cost estimate for the war.
The war
has consumed a large percentage of the Pentagon’s longest-range conventional
munitions, such as air-launched stealth cruise missiles and ground-launched
Precision Strike Missiles.
A 14th
service member has died during the war.
General
Caine mentioned that 14 U.S. military service members have died as part of
Operation Epic Fury, although the Pentagon’s casualty analysis system online
showed 13 U.S. deaths as of Wednesday morning.
The 14th
service member was Maj. Sorffly Davius of the Army National Guard, who
according to ABC News died on March 6 after a medical emergency in Kuwait. Two
Pentagon representatives, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, confirmed the death.
Hegseth
made a false claim about U.S. support to Ukraine.
The
defense secretary said the Biden administration provided Ukraine with “hundreds
of billions of dollars’ worth of munitions” after Russia invaded in 2022.
However, the true tally is far smaller.
According
to a New York Times analysis of Pentagon records and statements, the Biden
administration sent Ukraine $33.8 billion in weapons from Defense Department
stockpiles under a program called the Presidential Drawdown Authority. The
Biden administration also gave Ukraine $33.2 billion in cash to purchase
weapons directly from U.S. defense companies under the Ukraine Security
Assistance Initiative. That totals about $67 billion in military support since
the war began.
Following
the last disbursement of weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpile on Jan. 9, 2025,
about $3.8 billion in congressionally authorized funds remains unspent for
drawdowns of existing arms for Ukraine.
He
attacked critics of the Iran War.
Mr.
Hegseth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a junior officer in the Army
National Guard, took exception to members of Congress who have characterized
the Iran War as “a quagmire.”
“It’s
been two months,” Mr. Hegseth retorted. “You want to talk about a forever war?”
“I know
the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk and words
like ‘quagmire,’” Mr. Hegseth said. Recent polls, however, show a minority of
Americans approve of the U.S. military action in Iran.
Mr.
Hegseth also dismissed queries from Democrats about higher gas and food prices
as a result of the war as “gotcha” questions. “What would you pay to ensure
that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear bomb?” the defense secretary said.
And he
defended actions that legal experts have called war crimes.
Asked if
he stood by his statement that American troops would allow “no quarter, no
mercy for our enemies,” Mr. Hegseth said the military under his leadership
“fights to win.”
A “no
quarter” order is one to kill all enemy combatants, even those who are badly
injured or have surrendered.
“We
ensure that our war fighters have the rules of engagement necessary to be as
effective as humanly possible,” the secretary added, after Representative Seth
Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, pointed out that such an order was a war
crime under the military’s Uniform Code of Military Justice and international
law.
Eric
Schmitt and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.
John
Ismay is a reporter covering the Pentagon for The Times. He served as an
explosive ordnance disposal officer in the U.S. Navy.
Megan
Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times
Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
On April 29, 2026, the Pentagon provided its first official estimate for the ongoing war with Iran—$25 billion to date—during a combative House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Pentagon
Puts Iran War Cost at $25 Billion as Hegseth Berates Skeptics
On April
29, 2026, the Pentagon provided its first official estimate for the ongoing war
with Iran—$25 billion to date—during a combative House Armed Services Committee
hearing. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the expenditure as necessary
to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, while sharply criticizing
lawmakers who questioned the conflict’s direction.
Financial
and Operational Cost
Total
Spend: Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst testified that the $25 billion
price tag primarily reflects the cost of "tens of thousands" of
munitions used in Operation Epic Fury.
Munition
Depletion: Critics and analysts noted that the U.S. has burned through a
massive portion of its global stockpile, including approximately 1,100 JASSM-ER
stealth cruise missiles—nearly half of the entire global inventory—and over
1,000 Tomahawk missiles.
Ongoing
Daily Costs: Estimates suggest the war is costing nearly $1 billion per day.
Despite this, the current $25 billion figure is lower than the $200 billion the
Pentagon initially requested, indicating a slowdown from the first six days
when costs reached $11.3 billion.
Asset
Damage: The hearing revealed that dozens of U.S. aircraft, including an F-35
and four F-15E fighters, have been damaged or destroyed.
Hegseth’s
"Skeptics" Remarks
Secretary
Hegseth’s testimony was marked by intense friction with congressional
Democrats. His key arguments included:
The
"Biggest Adversary": Hegseth asserted that the primary obstacle to
victory was not Iran’s military, but the "reckless, feckless and defeatist
words" of congressional critics.
Rejection
of "Quagmire" Label: When Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) called the war a
"geopolitical calamity" and a "quagmire," Hegseth accused
him of "handing propaganda to our enemies" and asked, "Who are
you cheering for here?".
Endgame
Ambiguity: Hegseth declined to provide a specific timeline or total projected
cost for finishing the mission, which President Trump initially predicted would
take only "four to five weeks".
Strategic
and Legal Context
The
hearing took place just as the conflict approached the 60-day mark, a legal
threshold under the War Powers Resolution that may require the President to
seek formal congressional authorization for continued hostilities.
Lawmakers
also highlighted the economic impact of the war, specifically the Strait of
Hormuz closure, which has driven global fuel prices higher and remains a
central point of contention in stalled ceasefire talks.
Pentagon Puts Iran War Cost at $25 Billion as Hegseth Berates Skeptics
Pentagon
Puts Iran War Cost at $25 Billion as Hegseth Berates Skeptics
During
his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since the war began, the defense
secretary lashed out at lawmakers in both parties who have questioned the
conflict.
Robert
Jimison
By Robert
Jimison
Robert
Jimison, who covers military and foreign policy issues in Congress, reported
from the Capitol
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/politics/hegseth-iran-war-cost.html
April 29,
2026
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday castigated members of Congress in both
parties for questioning the war in Iran, during a contentious Capitol Hill
hearing dominated by a conflict that the Pentagon said had cost $25 billion and
14 American lives so far.
Appearing
at what had been scheduled as a routine hearing to review the Defense
Department’s nearly $1.45 trillion budget request for the coming year, Mr.
Hegseth spent much of his time lashing out at lawmakers whose approval would be
needed to provide that funding.
“The
biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the
reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some
Republicans,” the defense secretary declared in his prepared remarks to the
House Armed Services Committee, before members had asked a single question.
The
statement set a hostile tenor for the secretary’s first public testimony on
Capitol Hill since the war began, coming after Republicans had for weeks
refrained from exercising any public oversight of an operation undertaken
without congressional authorization, and which polls indicate is unpopular.
At
multiple points during the nearly five-hour hearing, Mr. Hegseth became so
belligerent toward Democrats who questioned him that the Republican chairman of
the committee halted the proceedings to urge the secretary to show respect to
the lawmakers.
“Once I
recognize a member, they have control of that five minutes,” the chairman,
Representative Mike D. Rogers of Alabama, told Mr. Hegseth. “The witness has to
recognize it’s their time.”
The tense
session unfolded just before a 60-day milestone in the conflict that some in
the G.O.P. have said could become a pivot point for their so far unconditional
backing for President Trump’s conduct of the war, beyond which they may begin
demanding more answers about objectives and a plan for extricating American
troops.
“Here we
are in a full-scale Mideast war, and we’ve seen the costs of that,”
Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on the panel,
said, noting military and civilian casualties and asserting that “over a dozen
countries now have been dragged into this war in one way or another.”
“Where is
this going?” Mr. Smith asked.
Mr.
Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided
few answers about an endgame, though their appearance did yield some new
information about the costs and results of the military campaign.
The
Pentagon comptroller, Jay Hurst, said the war had so far cost $25 billion,
mostly because of the tens of thousands of bombs and missiles used, providing
the first such official estimate since Mr. Trump began the operation. He did
not elaborate on the figure, which was strikingly smaller than the $200 billion
the Pentagon had initially requested for the conflict and suggested a major
slowdown in expenditures since the start of the war, when officials estimated
it had cost more than $11 billion in its first six days.
General
Caine put the number of U.S. service members that had died during the war with
Iran at 14, slightly above the Pentagon’s own tally of war casualties, which
reflects 13 deaths.
After two
months of war, General Caine testified, the Iranians “are weaker and less
capable than they have been in decades.”
Still,
when asked for a timetable or projected cost for finishing a mission that Mr.
Trump initially said would be completed in “four to five weeks,” Mr. Hegseth
demurred.
“As you
know and as the president has stated, you would never tell your adversary,
especially once you’ve decimated their military and you control their strait,”
that information, he told Representative Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of
Pennsylvania.
Democrats
sharply questioned the objectives for the mission and what had been gained from
it. In one particularly heated exchange, Representative John Garamendi,
Democrat of California, offered a tally of U.S. losses so far and asked what
the United States had achieved, noting that Iran had retained significant
military capabilities and closed the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway
for oil shipping.
“You have
been lying to the American people since Day 1” of the war, Mr. Garamendi told
Mr. Hegseth, accusing him of “incompetence.”
Mr.
Hegseth responded by suggesting that the congressman was rooting for the enemy.
“I know
the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk,” said Mr.
Hegseth, who just a year ago put the flight sequencing of American fighter jets
in a group chat on a commercial messaging app. Later, he asked Mr. Garamendi:
“Who you cheering for here? Who you pulling for?”
In the
hallway outside, protesters had gathered to register their opposition to the
war, shouting “war criminal” and “arrest Hegseth” as he arrived to testify.
Many
Republicans praised the war in Iran and Mr. Hegseth’s leadership, and focused
their questions on issues such as quality of life improvements for service
members, the use of artificial intelligence at the Pentagon and combating
adversaries such as China.
But some
in the G.O.P. made it clear they did not approve of Mr. Hegseth’s personnel
decisions, including the recent firings of Navy Secretary John Phelan and of
Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff.
“You have
the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn’t make it right or
wise,” Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, told Mr. Hegseth.
Later,
Representative Austin Scott, Republican of Georgia, also criticized General
George’s firing and appeared to beseech Mr. Hegseth not to alienate Democrats
whose votes would be needed to secure military resources that some in the
G.O.P. oppose.
“It takes
218 votes to get something across the floor of the House,” Mr. Scott said. “I
just would encourage everybody to keep that in mind, because we’re going to
lose some Republican votes.”
One point
of agreement on the committee was the concern expressed over the nation’s
dwindling weapons stockpile. Mr. Rogers warned that U.S. munitions stockpiles
were dangerously low and that the nation’s industrial capacity to replenish
them was weak. The war in Iran has sharply depleted U.S. arsenals, with the
Pentagon diverting bombs, missiles and other hardware from commands in Asia and
Europe to the Middle East.
But
ultimately, Mr. Rogers said, the military campaign in Iran has given Mr. Trump
“the opening he needs to negotiate a true and lasting peace that will ensure
Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.”
Still,
even as the hearing unfolded, the conflict’s outcome was uncertain, with a
fragile cease-fire and dueling blockades muddying the situation and no binding
agreement yet on Iran’s nuclear program or significant change to the country’s
leadership.
In a
predawn social media post before the session began, Mr. Trump urged Iranian
leaders to “get smart soon,” alongside an image of himself holding an automatic
rifle in front of a hilly desert landscape dotted with explosions. He later
told Axios that he was rejecting an Iranian proposal that sought to lift the
naval blockade, saying he believed it was “somewhat more effective than the
bombing.”
When
asked by Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, how he would
characterize the current state of the war, Mr. Hegseth called it “an astounding
military success.”
“But are
we winning the war?” Mr. Moulton asked.
“Absolutely,”
Mr. Hegseth replied.
Eric
Schmitt, Helene Cooper and John Ismay contributed reporting.
Robert
Jimison covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on defense issues and
foreign policy.
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