quinta-feira, 30 de abril de 2026
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.
What the Royal State Dinner Guest List Says About Trump’s America
What the
Royal State Dinner Guest List Says About Trump’s America
There
were at least 10 American billionaires, six Fox News hosts, assorted
presidential pals, no Democratic politicians and not so many British.
Elisabeth
Bumiller
By
Elisabeth Bumiller
Reporting
from Washington
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/politics/trump-white-house-state-dinner.html
April 29,
2026
Guest
lists for White House state dinners have always been political rather than
social documents. Avidly chewed over in Washington, they broadcast an
administration’s priorities, favored businesses, top donors and media allies.
They are supposed to reflect the country being honored.
By those
standards, the Trump guest list for the state dinner for King Charles III of
Britain and Queen Camilla on Tuesday night was another whack at norms in an
administration that likes to shatter them.
Among the
more than 100 guests were at least 10 American billionaires, six Fox News
hosts, one Fox News executive, six conservative Supreme Court justices,
numerous Silicon Valley tech titans and assorted friends of the president’s.
There were no British cultural figures and, for that matter, a meager number of
British overall. The British Embassy in Washington appears to have had limited
input into the guest list.
There
were also no Democratic politicians, which has been the case at other Trump
state dinners.
Previous
White House social secretaries took note.
“There’s no
attempt to reach out to the other side,” said Gahl Hodges Burt, who was the
White House social secretary for three years in the Reagan administration.
“There are no clergy, there are no minority group representatives, there are no
medical researchers, there are no vaccine developers. And I would have had the
astronauts who just came back.”
Nevertheless,
she said, “it’s an impressive group. And a group you would expect."
It is
unclear who put together the guest list, which is typically overseen by the
White House social secretary, along with heavy input from the West Wing, the
White House political operation and the White House liaison to Congress.
Melania Trump, the first lady, has had no social secretary in her husband’s
second term.
On
Wednesday her press secretary, Nick Clemens, declined to comment on the guest
list or how it was put together.
Jeremy
Bernard, who was a White House social secretary in the Obama administration,
said his goal was to have the guest lists reflect America. “It doesn’t seem
like there was any attempt to make this look like something of the U.S.
overall,” he said of the Trump list. “It’s more reflective of the U.S. right
wing.”
In Mr.
Trump’s first term, he said, he would speak to the social secretary at the
time, Anna Cristina Niceta Lloyd. “She would call me and say, ‘Hey, we’re
having a dinner in the Rose Garden. Tell me about the dinner you had in the
Rose Garden.’ And I’d tell her about the lighting company. We shared stuff.
There is no such person now.”
Most of
the British guests on the list were members of the official party traveling
from London, among them Clive Alderton, the principal private secretary to the
king and queen, and Tobyn Andreae, the communications director of the royal
household. The other British guests included Harry Lopes, Camilla’s son-in-law,
and Otis Irwin, her grandnephew.
Also
included were Keith Poole, the British tabloid veteran who is now editor in
chief of The New York Post; Ruth Porat, the British American president and
chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google; and Rory McIlroy, the Northern
Irish golfer who just won his second Masters.
Tina
Brown, the British American journalist and the former editor of The New Yorker
and Vanity Fair, who regularly shreds the Trump administration in her “Fresh
Hell” Substack column (and who, needless to say, was not included on the guest
list), called the document “absolutely classic." In other words, she said,
“it’s the cronies, the money, the conservative Supreme Court justices.” She
mused that the English actress Helen Mirren and the English historian Simon
Schama would have been good to include.
Michael
LaRosa, who was the press secretary to Jill Biden, the former first lady, was
of the view that Democratic White Houses were no different from the current one
in their partisanship. “Obama invited liberal journalists and opinion writers,
and we invited the whole MSNBC crowd and Nancy Pelosi and her daughter,” said
Mr. LaRosa, who now works for Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by a top
Trump fund-raiser.
The guest
list for the dinner for the king and queen, he said, “didn’t strike me as
unusual. It struck me as par for the course. I always think of these things in
terms of internal politics. What donor do we need to prime for the next cycle?
Who is not getting tender love and care?”
Notable
names on the Trump guest list included David Ellison, the chief executive of
Paramount; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Steve Schwarzman, the chief
executive of the Blackstone Group; and Meg O’Neill, the chief executive of BP.
At a 2007
state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during the George W. Bush
administration, guests included Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, then
the speaker of the House; Robin Roberts of ABC; and the British historian
Martin Gilbert.
Katie
Robertson contributed reporting from New York.
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