‘Takes money to kill bad guys’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2026.
Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Thursday reported Iran’s $200 billion budget request for war financing “could be acted upon.”
“It takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said at a news conference when asked to confirm the figure, which the Washington Post first reported Wednesday evening.
“We will go back to Congress and our friends there to make sure we are properly funded,” Hegseth said.
Citing two congressional officials, MS NOW reported early Thursday morning that an unofficial request for up to $200 billion in funding had been made by the Trump administration but no formal request had yet been made.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told MS NOW in a phone interview that that figure was “discussed informally by administration officials.”
The cost of the US military operations against Iran, which started on February 28, has already been high 12 billion dollars As of Sunday, according to Kevin Hassett, director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council.
Speaking on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Hassett said at the time that he didn’t think the United States needed to ask Congress for more money for the war effort “right now.”
The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a request from Congress for more than $200 billion to fund the intensifying war effort, the Post’s report, citing a senior administration official, said.
The huge figure will be used to increase production of critical munitions that the United States and Israel have used to hit thousands of targets since the beginning of the conflict, three other people familiar with the matter told the Post.
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