The Pentagon has asked the White House to authorize a request to Congress of over $200 billion to fund the war against the Iranian regime, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing a senior Trump administration official.
The US Defense Department reportedly declined to comment to The Washington Post, and the White House has yet to do so. The report also noted that the move would almost certainly face pushback from members of Congress opposed to the war.
Pentagon's 200 billion request could signal deeper war escalation
The $200 billion would far exceed the price of the US airstrikes on Iran since the initiation of Operation Epic Fury late last month, three sources told the outlet. They added that the funding would aim to ramp up the production of key armaments used up in the thousands of American and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The Washington-Jerusalem campaign against Tehran is now approaching its third week, and the $200 billion request, which would dwarf the amount the US has spent on the war so far, may signify US preparations for a heavily intensified or prolonged continuation of military operations against Tehran.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in the first week, the US spent $11.3 billion on the war.
The institute noted that the cost comes in part from the high price of the Tomahawk missile, which it said costs around $3.5 million each. The institute’s analysis further suggests that the US had used around 400 of these missiles in the first week of the war.
Additionally, the Pentagon’s reported request represents a significantly higher sum than the US has spent on both the Israel-Hamas War and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia War combined since their beginnings in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
According to data from the Kiel Institute, as seen by The Jerusalem Post, between January 24, 2022, and December 31, 2025, the US provided $131.45 billion in bilateral allocations to Ukraine.
By October 7 of last year, two years after the start of the Israel-Hamas War, the US had enacted legislation giving Israel $16.3 billion in direct military aid, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.