🔶 US Defense Secretary: War with Iran has cost $37.5 billion

Pete Hegseth, the US Defense Secretary, said the war with Iran has cost the United States about $37.5 billion since it began.

He made the figure known in a meeting of the US Senate Appropriations Committee; a figure that is about $8.5 billion higher than the Pentagon’s previous estimate.

Hegseth said the US government has requested $87.6 billion in emergency funding from Congress to continue military operations and replenish weapons stockpiles, with $67 billion of it to be allocated to the Department of Defense.

The request was met with criticism from a number of senators. Patty Murray, a Democratic senator, called it “irrational” and accused the Trump administration of seeking to bypass the usual congressional budget approval process under the heading of “emergency funding”.