Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war [View all]

Source: Washington Post

WP Exclusive
Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war

Some White House officials do not think the Defense Department's request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress, one senior administration official said.

March 18, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. EDT


President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in September. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)

By Noah Robertson, Jeff Stein and Riley Beggin

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.

That number would far surpass the costs of the administration’s massive airstrike campaign to date and instead seek to urgently increase production of critical weaponry expended as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck thousands of targets over the past three weeks, according to three other people familiar with the matter, who confirmed that the Defense Department is seeking packages of that size.

The funding request is likely to stage a major political battle in Congress, as public support for the effort remains tepid and Democrats have been sharply critical. Republicans have signaled support for the forthcoming supplemental request but haven’t committed to a legislative strategy, or found a clear path to surpass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/18/iran-cost-budget-pentagon/