Hegseth says Iran war has cost $37.5 billion so far

At a tense Senate hearing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the conflict’s cost at $37.5B while Democrats challenged strategy and past “destroyed” claims.

Cost estimate and prior totals

Hegseth said the administration’s $37.5 billion figure covers costs already incurred and some spending expected through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, CBS News reported. A defense official testified in late April that the war had cost about $25 billion at that time, the network said.

CBS News also reported that sources indicated the true total is much higher than the figure Hegseth presented. Lawmakers have been weighing additional war funding, including a reported administration request in the tens of billions of dollars, though the precise package under debate has varied in public discussion.

Democrats challenge strategy

The cost figure came during appearances by Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before Senate panels amid recent escalations in the Iran conflict, according to CBS News. Democratic senators used the hearings to question whether the United States has a clear path to end the war and protect service members.

In one exchange reported by CBS News, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., called the administration’s war strategy a failure and directed criticism at civilian leadership rather than troops. “You, sir, are the failure. Not the men and women who are on that frontline,” Peters said, according to the network. “If there’s a lack of a winning strategy, they’re in harm’s way. Their leaders have failed them.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., pressed Hegseth on planning for a possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy shipments that has figured heavily in economic and military debate since the fighting began, CBS News reported. Hegseth said the strait had been “front and center” in department planning.

Earlier “destroyed” claims revisited

Democrats have also returned to earlier administration language about the state of Iran’s nuclear program. In April testimony covered by CBS News, then and later referenced in war oversight, lawmakers challenged assertions that strikes had fully eliminated nuclear facilities even as Iran was said not to have abandoned nuclear ambitions. Those disputes remain a backdrop to this week’s cost and strategy questions rather than a settled public accounting of battlefield results.

Funding and congressional oversight

The hearings underscored Congress’s role in paying for the conflict after hostilities began without a new authorization vote, a point Democrats and some independents have raised for months, according to CBS reporting. Hegseth and Caine faced questions not only about dollars spent to date but about what additional money would buy and how long operations might continue.

CBS News said the $37.5 billion estimate was offered as lawmakers scrutinize war spending against competing domestic and defense priorities. No independent, comprehensive audit of total wartime costs was presented in the hearing coverage, and outside assessments of the full economic impact—including energy-market effects—remain separate from the Pentagon figure Hegseth cited.

Reporting on the hearing and cost estimate was based primarily on CBS News accounts of the Senate appearances and related coverage of the Iran conflict.