Trump's govt makes 'treasonous' claim of weapons shortages

In the last two days, a pair of government reports confirmed what many outside analysts have claimed: the Iran war has been extraordinarily costly for the U.S. military and for the American public.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis released Tuesday afternoon found that the Iran war has already cost the Department of Defense (DoD) $38 billion. While this is significantly lower than the $100-billion-plus price tag independent experts have calculated, CBO notes that its estimates were limited because “DoD did not respond to CBO’s requests for information.”

Without help from the DoD, CBO could not include a number of known war costs in its analysis, including repairing damage to U.S. military bases in the region. Those costs alone could top $200 billion , according to experts.

What CBO could confirm was that the war has been a disaster for the U.S. economy and military readiness. The CBO analysis estimates that the inflation rate is now expected to be a full half-point higher in 2027 than it was before the war began, almost entirely because of higher global energy costs resulting from the war. “Because the price of almost every product reflects shipping costs, increases in petroleum prices — a significant input in transporting goods — indirectly affect the prices of most goods and services,” CBO writes.

The story for military readiness is just as bleak. According to CBO’s analysis, the U.S. used between one-half and two-thirds of its missile interceptor inventory throughout the war with Iran, which presents an enormous opportunity cost. “The shortfall would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles,” according to the report, which notes that China maintains such an arsenal.

A separate report released by the DoD Inspector General (IG) Monday afternoon offers even more details about the costs of the war in terms of military readiness. The report provides the first public confirmation from within DoD that the war has produced critical shortages of some weapons. According to the report, it has “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”

While numerous outside experts had warned of the DoD’s munitions shortages, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump have repeatedly rejected the notion that the U.S. military is running low on key weapons. In June, Hegseth told Face the Nation that the munitions shortage was “a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle and ultimately our stockpiles are great, and they're only getting stronger.” Earlier this month, Trump claimed on Truth Social that the military has “virtually unlimited amounts of Mid to High Grade Ammunition.” He called those who reported there were shortfalls "treasonous."

The president remained unmoved even after the IG report’s release on Monday, posting on Truth Social that the U.S. military is producing "more Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History."

The IG report, however, paints a radically different story of the Iran war than the one portrayed by Trump and Hegseth. In addition to highlighting the munitions shortfalls — which it sourced directly from the Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment, the office responsible for purchasing weapons for the U.S. military — the report notes that the Iran war has resulted in more than 50 U.S. military aircraft being damaged or destroyed. In addition, “USCENTCOM reported that Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan,” according to the report.

As the IG report notes, the greatest costs have been borne by the 18 service members who lost their lives in the conflict, as well as the more than 400 service members who were wounded in action in just the first four months of the conflict. The Defense Casualty Analysis System now shows more than 800 servicemembers have been injured in the Iran war.

Back in the U.S., the war continues to prove extraordinarily costly to the American economy. The jump in inflation that CBO identified has translated to gas prices soaring more than 40% since the war began. Last week, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, Mark Zandi, put the total economic costs of the war to American consumers — including higher gas prices and the resulting rise in the price of just about everything that Americans buy — at $115 billion, or about $860 per household.

In short, whether you’re a service member or an average American just trying to pay for gas and groceries, Trump’s war of choice in Iran has already been immensely costly, and those costs will only continue to grow the longer the war drags on.