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Pete Hegseth Pressed On Pentagon Requesting $200,000,000,000 For Iran War

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth responded to a question Thursday about why the Pentagon was requesting $200 billion for the Iran War.

The Pentagon reportedly asked the White House to approve a request to Congress for $200 billion in supplemental funding for Operation Epic Fury, according to The Washington Post. Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese asked Hegseth about the reported request.

“As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move. Obviously it takes, it takes money to kill bad guys, so we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is, everything’s refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond,” Hegseth responded. “I mean, President Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military in his first term, didn’t think he’d use it as dynamically in his second, but he had. So thank goodness he did that.”

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“And an investment like this is meant to say, hey, we’ll replace anything that was spent, and now that we’re reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom and cutting deals like our great deputy secretaries here is doing, long lead times on exquisite munitions, we’re going to be refilled faster than anyone imagined, and I think, you know, we’re also still dealing with the environment that Joe Biden created, which was, which was depleting those stockpiles and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine,” Hegseth continued.

The United States has sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022. The Biden administration announced in January 2023 they would send 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks after announcing a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles would be provided in December 2022.

On multiple occasions, alarms have been raised that the effort to support Ukraine could potentially leave the United States and other allies with depleted stockpiles of crucial munitions. Qatar reportedly used PAC-2 versions of the Patriot, manufactured around 2000, to intercept some of the Iranian missiles and drones the theocratic regime launched.

“Every time we reach back and look at any sort of a challenge we have, it goes back to, well, send it to Ukraine,” Hegseth told Reese. “Ultimately we think… these munitions are better spent in our own interests at this point, and this kind of funding bill is going to ensure that we’re properly funded going forward.”