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us department of defense
Hegseth is '100% a War Criminal' Who 'Needs to Be Prosecuted,' Says Former Top Pentagon Official
"He is conducting state terrorism."
Nov 06, 2026
While President Donald Trump this week indicated he's standing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the wake of brutal midterm election losses, Democratic Party leaders have indicated they'll use their new majorities in Congress to remove him from office, one way or another.
The Intercept reported on Thursday that source in the US Department of Defense, as well as on Capitol Hill, believe Hegseth's days are numbered due to a number of factors, including an "endless raft of scandals, culture-war clownishness, and senseless policies."
Wes J. Bryant, a senior targeting adviser and policy analyst at the Pentagon who was pushed out of his job last year, told The Intercept that Hegseth’s extrajudicial killings of people in the Caribbean and Pacific constitute war crimes.
"He is conducting state terrorism," said Bryant. "He is 100% a war criminal. He needs to be prosecuted."
A senior congressional staffer told The Intercept that a resolution to impeach Hegseth being offered in the US House of Representatives by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) could gain significant bipartisan support if the defense secretary refuses to step down.
“There are very angry senior Republicans in the national security space who honestly pin a lot of their election losses on [Hegseth]," the staffer said. "They are furious... So they’re asking themselves, ‘What is even the harm in voting to impeach Hegseth?'"
In a Thursday social media post, Massie advised Trump that forcing Hegseth to leave right now is the best option he has.
"If Trump’s going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed in the Senate," Massie wrote. "Also, my Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dems control Congress. They’ll have hearings and trials."
Hegseth, however, remained defiant in the face of the impeachment threat and posted a video on social media where he vowed to remain at the Pentagon.
"A disgruntled, defeated Congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly—just like they tried against President Trump twice," Hegseth said. "It didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me."
At the War Department: We Stand.We Fight. We Defend the Republic. https://t.co/Kkr0DazmCE
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 5, 2026
Richard Ojeda, a retired US army major who on Tuesday won an election as the Democratic Party's nominee in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, was less than impressed by Hegseth's bravado.
"Trump took five deferments to keep from serving in Vietnam so you can shove that tough guy talk up your ass," Ojeda wrote in response to Hegseth. "You are a war criminal. Tick tock."
Former Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) was similarly dismissive of Hegseth's video and urged Congress to "impeach and remove Hegseth" then "prosecute him for war crimes."
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) predicted that Hegseth would soon be out of a job, whether he knows it or not.
"After failing our servicemembers and starting new forever wars, Pete's desperate to keep his job," wrote Crow. "Tick tock, Mr. Secretary. Better start packing up your make-up room at the Pentagon. Time's up."
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Thomas Massie Gives Pete Hegseth a Choice: Resignation or Impeachment
"There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns," wrote Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.
Nov 05, 2026
Republican US Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said Wednesday that Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, the most prominent cheerleader and architect of the Trump administration's illegal war on Iran, will face an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives—unless he submits his resignation first.
"There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns," Massie, who unveiled eight impeachment articles against the Pentagon secretary in September, wrote following Democrats' rout of the GOP in Tuesday's midterm elections. Massie is expected to force a vote on the articles—which accuse Hegseth of extrajudicial killings, waging wars without congressional authorization, and kidnapping a sovereign foreign leader—as soon as next week.
The Kentucky Republican's ultimatum came as CNN reported that a "knives-out campaign" against Hegseth intensified following the midterm elections, in which Democrats won control of the House and Senate beginning in January.
"Many Republican lawmakers and allies alarmed by Tuesday’s wipeout are moving swiftly to pin blame for the election results on Hegseth, arguing behind the scenes that he played a chief role in convincing Trump to attack Iran with no exit strategy—and no plan for managing the inevitable political fallout," CNN reported.
It's unclear whether Massie's impeachment articles have enough Republican support to pass in the lame-duck House, which is narrowly controlled by the GOP.
President Donald Trump, who launched the illegal war on Iran in February and has threatened to escalate the assault following the midterms, insisted Wednesday that he has "every intention to keep" Hegseth in his post. (Trump has previously defended top administration officials in public just before firing them.)
NBC News reported Wednesday that Trump "has told some of his allies in recent days that he’s considering replacing" Hegseth, who has gleefully boasted of the "death and destruction" that the US military has inflicted on Iran, where American bombs have killed thousands of people—including many children.
The looming impeachment effort comes amid rumors that Hegseth is eyeing the US Senate seat that Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) will vacate after winning Tennessee's gubernatorial election on Tuesday. Puck reported last month that Hegseth "has been angling" for Blackburn to appoint him to the seat once she takes office—a story that Hegseth denied through a spokesperson.
Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy organizations have expressed support for Hegseth's impeachment. Last week, as Common Dreams reported, Free Speech For People and two other national advocacy groups endorsed Massie's articles, calling them "a clear opportunity for Congress to hold Hegseth accountable for his dangerous abuses of power."
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), the lone Iranian American Democrat in Congress, introduced her own articles of impeachment against Hegseth in April, accusing the Pentagon secretary of targeting civilians in Iran and other abuses.
"Impeach Pete Hegseth," Ansari wrote Wednesday in response to the Pentagon secretary's election-day social media post urging Americans to turn out to vote.
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Lawsuit Targets Secretive Musk-Led Pentagon Panel Over 'Enormous Potential Conflicts of Interest'
"The federal government should not be outsourcing its vision on ‘the future of warfare’ to a panel dominated by individuals that stand to profit from it."
Nov 03, 2026
A coalition of government watchdog organizations sued the US Department of Defense on Monday over a recently announced initiative known as Project Meridian, a Pentagon advisory committee headed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Anduril Industries cofounder Palmer Luckey—billionaires whose companies benefit extensively from federal contracts.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Project Meridian violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which "requires that any federal advisory committee that includes non-governmental members be created by a charter, have a defined structure and purpose, make its records and meetings open to the public, and be fairly balanced in its membership."
In his memorandum ordering the creation of Project Meridian, Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth set a deadline of January 28, 2027 for the panel to deliver recommendations to the US Defense Department on how to "map the trajectory of future warfare" and help the country "maintain global dominance."
Project Meridian has held at least two meetings at the Pentagon, which has not disclosed the specific contents of the gatherings or released a list of attendees. Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is helping Musk and Luckey spearhead the advisory panel, coordinated by the MITRE Corporation—whose board previously included the GOP's nominee for US Senate in Michigan, Mike Rogers.
"Despite its ongoing operations and imminent final report," the new lawsuit reads, "defendants have failed to comply with FACA’s procedural and substantive requirements for new federal advisory committees, including FACA transparency requirements that disallow Project Meridian’s closed-door operations."
"Compounding the problem, Project Meridian’s private-sector membership raises precisely the type of conflict-of-interest concerns that FACA was designed to address," the lawsuit continues. "Announced members include Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey, both leaders and stakeholders of major defense contractors with substantial financial interests in the outcome of Project Meridian’s recommendations. Other members likewise have direct financial stakes in Project Meridian’s findings or are dedicated to aggressive military action."
The lawsuit was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Public Citizen, and the Project on Government Oversight. The groups urged the federal court to "hold unlawful, vacate, and set aside Secretary Hegseth’s September 30 memorandum establishing Project Meridian," "enjoin defendants from allowing Project Meridian to continue its work until defendants bring it into compliance with FACA," and bar the Pentagon from "accepting or acting upon any recommendations by Project Meridian while it is acting outside the law."
Donald Sherman, CREW's president, said in a statement on Monday that the Pentagon is "legally barred from getting advice in secret, by defense contractors with enormous potential conflicts of interest."
"But that’s exactly what Project Meridian is doing—soliciting private counsel from contractors about military capacity including the president’s largest political benefactor,” said Sherman. "The Federal Advisory Committee Act sets clear requirements about transparency and avoiding conflicts of interest, and Project Meridian must either comply or stop operating.”
Musk's SpaceX has secured more than $8 billion in Pentagon contracts in 2026 alone.
Anduril Industries, Luckey's firm, is known for building autonomous drones. The company won a $2 billion US Navy contract last month, days after Hegseth announced Project Meridian.
“Project Meridian would outsource design of grand military strategy to two extremist Pentagon contractors, Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey,” Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said Monday. “Very predictably, they will recommend more spending, much more spending, on more AI-enabled weaponry. That would simultaneously make the world more dangerous and starve funding for domestic and human needs."
"The law demands balance on advisory committees, precisely to prevent connected insiders like Musk and Luckey from writing policy at the expense of the public," Weissman added.
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As Trump Renews Iran Threats, Dems Reminded They Can 'Block War Funding' Regardless of Election Outcome
"Democrats must block Iran war funding in 2026."
Nov 01, 2026
As President Donald Trump and Iranian officials traded threats over the weekend, and with the Trump administration reportedly considering renewed attacks against an underground complex it claims is a nuclear site—which Iran denies—critics of the illegal US-Israeli war on the Middle Eastern country called on Democrats to take decisive action to end the conflict after the midterm elections, in which the party could take control of one or both chambers of Congress.
The nonprofit group Just Foreign Policy (JFP) was among those pointing to comments from last week by US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who said members of Congress recently attended a confidential briefing about possible strikes on Iran after the midterms—a plan whose details he called "insane."
As Common Dreams reported Friday, Iranian officials are taking steps to prepare the population for a potential US nuclear attack, which Trump has threatened multiple times since launching the war in February. He went to war with the preemptive aim of defending Israel from Iran's retaliation if the Israeli government waged an attack on its own, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned the US and Israel on Saturday against renewing attacks, saying they would be met with "geographically unrestricted" retaliation. He expressed hope Sunday that "that there is rationality on the other side to prefer diplomacy to other paths."
But with government funding expiring December 11, including money for the US Department of Defense "that is illegally bombing and blockading Iranian civilians," said JFP, "Democrats can block war funding" before the new year.
"Senate Democrats must not send another dollar to [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth's War Department unless the US stops the illegal war that is harming 90 million Iranian civilians and 300 million US drivers," said JFP, referring to the skyrocketing gas prices that have resulted from the conflict. "No excuses. Not another dollar for this illegal war."
JFP referred to Murphy's comments at the Middle East Institute last Wednesday, where he said Democrats in Congress must "use our spending power to end the war."
"I imagine what will happen is that there will be a continuing resolution after the election, and we'll push off the budget until January or February of next year," said Murphy. "And then if Democrats are in charge, we will essentially say we want to fund the Department of Defense, but we are not going to fund the Department of Defense if it's funding this war. And so there will have to be some provision in the bill that denies any funding to be used for the continuation of a war against Iran that's making us less safe and costing billions to American citizens."
JFP emphasized that even if Democrats don't win a majority in Congress in Tuesday's elections, Democratic senators would be able to block the continuing resolution that would keep the war funded into February, because Republicans with their current majority would need seven Democrats to join them in supporting the funding.
"Democrats must block Iran war funding in 2026," said JFP. "Democrats do NOT need to win or wait. Murphy's approach here means Democrats would agree to fund the Iran war for months or years to come."
"If Democrats win a big blue wave rebuke of this patently unconstitutional war, and Trump comes out of the midterms escalating it, Democrats should move to block it and impeach him over it," said another commentator. "Voting to enable it would be a corrupt abdication."
Al Jazeera reported Sunday that Iran was continuing negotiations with the US through Qatari mediators, "but it does not have the slightest optimism about Trump’s intentions even for a moment,” according to a security source.
“We think that there may be different voices in the US, but experience has shown that the US president and his circle are succumbing to the temptations of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the warmongering extremists who support him,” the source said. “For this reason we are obliged to maintain our focus on being fully prepared for a decisive and punitive defense against any aggression and crime by the United States and Israel.”
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National Groups Endorse Impeachment Push as Hegseth Reportedly Eyes US Senate Seat in Tennessee
"In the case of Pete Hegseth, lawmakers now face a choice: Will they side with gross incompetence, rampant murder, and an illegal war, or will they finally side with the Constitution?"
Oct 28, 2026
A trio of national advocacy organizations and a constitutional scholar on Wednesday endorsed articles of impeachment that Republican US Rep. Thomas Massie filed last month against Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is reportedly eyeing a soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat as a way to evade his possible removal from office if Democrats retake Congress in next week's midterms.
Free Speech for People, the Removal Coalition, FLARE USA, and Bruce Fein—a constitutional scholar and former associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan—announced their support for Massie's (R-Ky.) impeachment articles days after Puck reported that "there’s chatter" on Capitol Hill that Hegseth "has been angling for Sen. Marsha Blackburn to appoint him to her Senate seat, which she would vacate after winning her gubernatorial election."
According to Puck, some Republicans are privately hoping that Trump fires Hegseth before any impeachment effort gains real momentum. The Pentagon denied Puck's reporting, calling it "nothing more than beltway gossip."
Massie's articles accuse Hegseth of unconstitutionally waging war on Iran, "ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties," "extrajudicial killings" in international waters, and the kidnapping former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without legal authority, among other charges.
“Pete Hegseth has repeatedly demonstrated his contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the fundamental rights of the American people,” John Bonifaz, president of Free Speech for People, said in a statement to Common Dreams. “No secretary of defense is above the law, and no president can authorize a Cabinet official to disregard the Constitution. Rep. Massie’s articles of impeachment present a clear opportunity for Congress to hold Hegseth accountable for his dangerous abuses of power.”
Jessica Denson, founder of the Removal Coalition, said that "it is past time for the corrupt and dangerous members of this lawless administration to face impeachment and removal."
"In the case of Pete Hegseth, lawmakers now face a choice," said Denson. "Will they side with gross incompetence, rampant murder, and an illegal war, or will they finally side with the Constitution?"
Hegseth's impeachment is backed by nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters and 20% of Republicans, according to polling released earlier this month.
"Free Speech for People is urging lawmakers to support Massie’s articles regardless of party," the group said Wednesday. "Hegseth has committed multiple abuses of power and must be impeached and removed from public office."
Massie introduced his impeachment articles months after Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), one of two Iranian Americans in Congress, separately unveiled articles that also cited the Iran war and US military atrocities as reasons Hegseth should be removed from office.
While just 16 House Democrats have cosponsored Ansari's impeachment resolution, Semafor reported earlier this month that "as the Iran war squeezes Republicans ahead of the midterms, Democrats are aligning to call for the defense secretary’s ouster or resignation."
“I 100% believe Pete Hegseth needs to be impeached and removed from office, because not only is he the worst secretary of defense in American history, he is a dangerous war criminal,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) told Semafor.
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Official Price Tag of Iran War Jumps to $47 Billion as Trump Says It Will End 'Whenever I Want It To'
The president's comments and the official cost estimate came amid reports that the US military is preparing for a new onslaught against Iran after the midterm elections.
Oct 28, 2026
US President Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters on Tuesday that his illegal war of choice in Iran will end "whenever I want it to" as the conflict's official price tag reportedly jumped to $47 billion—a figure that independent analysts believe to be a dramatic underestimate.
"It can be over whenever I want it to be over," Trump said of the historically unpopular war during a rally in Texas, a week before the midterm elections. "But we have to have it end properly, with... a total statement [that] they will never have a nuclear weapon." (Iran has already said repeatedly that it would never develop nuclear weapons, including in the opening pages of the Obama-era agreement that Trump shredded during his first White House term.)
Trump's remarks came as The Hill reported that the federal government's official estimate of the Iran war's cost has jumped $3 billion since last month, rising to $47 billion.
"The biggest chunk of the cost is munition replacement at $29 billion," The Hill reported, citing a US Central Command estimate that the outlet obtained on Tuesday. "Nearly $12 billion is obligated for incremental costs of military action and another $6.1 billion to replace equipment losses, according to the estimate. Air Force’s support for deployed personnel, airlift, base, communication support, and transportation in theater costs $7.6 billion. The estimate does not include the cost to damaged US military bases in the Middle East."
When such damage—which has been far more extensive than the Pentagon has acknowledged publicly—and other factors are included, the price tag balloons. Stephen Semler, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, estimated in July that the US spent more than $103 billion in the first four months of the war, which has killed thousands of people and sent gas prices soaring.
In the US, consumers have spent an extra $146 billion on gasoline and diesel since the war's beginning in February, according to a running tracker maintained by the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
Trump said Tuesday that the unauthorized war's end would come "very quick," despite evidence that his administration is preparing for yet another round of heavy bombings in Iran after the midterm elections.
"The US has told several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short, intense military campaign after the US midterm elections," The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday, citing unnamed people briefed on the conversations. "The communications through diplomatic and military channels are among a growing number of indications that the US and Israel are readying to launch a new round of heavy combat operations against Iran, risking a major escalation in hopes of degrading Tehran’s strength and pushing it toward negotiations."
"US forces in the region have been restocking their munitions, and bomber aircraft and jet fighters are preparing for strikes," the Journal added. "An additional aircraft carrier strike group and Marine expeditionary unit are also poised to join an armada of roughly 20 other warships operating in the Middle East next month, although some ships could rotate out."
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'A Perfect Metaphor': Hegseth Staffers Broke Historic Globe After Pentagon Chief Demanded It for His Office
"I cannot think of a more apt metaphor for Pete Hegseth’s DoD," said one critic.
Oct 22, 2026
Staffers for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth broke a globe used by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower during World War II after the Trump Cabinet official demanded that it be moved to his office in the Pentagon.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Hegseth wanted the historic 30-inch globe delivered to his office because he found its historical significance "attractive."
The Post noted that while moving historical items such as the globe is normally "a deliberate process overseen by trained curators," Hegseth's staff dispensed with such formalities and attempted to move it by themselves.
The staffers subsequently dropped the globe, cracking its shell and creating a gash several inches wide.
While the US Department of Defense denied requests from Post reporters to inspect the globe in person, the newspaper nonetheless obtained photos of the artifact, which revealed a large hole at its base.
After the globe was damaged, the staffers abandoned plans to bring it to Hegseth's office.
Ty Seidule, a retired brigadier general who taught history at the US Military Academy at West Point, told the Post that it appears Hegseth "wants an Eisenhower totem to be like Ike, brilliant in war and peace."
"Hegseth is no Ike," Seidule continued. "The globe won’t give him Ike’s attributes of humility, intellect, and judgment."
Other critics of Hegseth drew attention to the symbolism of the defense secretary breaking a historic artifact while eschewing expert assistance.
"They broke Eisenhower’s globe because they didn’t want to wait for a team of specialist historians to move it," wrote weapons systems expert John Ridge in a social media post. "I cannot think of a more apt metaphor for Pete Hegseth’s DoD."
Drop Site reporter Ryan Grim remarked that "Hegseth’s frat brothers breaking Eisenhower’s globe is a bit too on the nose."
Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor argued that the globe incident was "a perfect metaphor" for Hegseth's reign at the Pentagon, as it was "stupid, impulsive, driven by vanity, and the result is destruction."
Yale historian Joanne Freeman wrote that the symbolism of Hegseth's team breaking the globe "is too much to bear."
"And of course, they ignored the TRAINED EXPERTS WHO HANDLE HISTORICAL ITEMS," Freeman added. "Because EDUCATION? EXPERTISE? WHO NEEDS IT?"
Writer David Simon, creator of hit TV series The Wire, said the symbolism of the globe debacle was too heavy-handed even for a Hollywood drama.
"This metaphor is ridiculously obvious and unsubtle," Simon wrote. "Fire the writers. They're hacks."
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Pentagon Officials Reportedly Ready to 'Spill Their Guts' to Help Get Hegseth Impeached
"Through his arrogance, he’s made many former allies willing to work with Democrats to hold his feet to the fire for all the damage he’s done to our military."
Oct 21, 2026
With polls showing Democrats in good position to retake at least one chamber of the US Congress, several Pentagon insiders are reportedly lining up to offer up damaging information about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in hopes that a new Democratic majority will impeach him.
According to a report published Wednesday by The Telegraph, current and former officials at the US Department of Defense are prepared to "spill their guts" about Hegseth to Democratic congressional investigators, who have "already made contact with potential whistleblowers."
Unnamed sources told The Telegraph that Hegseth has committed a number of "costly blunders" during his tenure, while at the same making several enemies of career Pentagon officials.
“There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to very quietly go to the chair of the [US House Armed Services Committee]," one source said, "and are going to spill their guts, provide them with everything they can, and leak everything they can."
"It’ll be horrendous," the sources added. "It’ll be consistent embarrassment."
A second source described as a former senior Trump administration official outlined "huge problems" Hegseth faces from Pentagon officials eager to see him ousted.
"Through his arrogance," the source said, "he’s made many former allies willing to work with Democrats to hold his feet to the fire for all the damage he’s done to our military."
A third source described a wide range of motives for the Pentagon insiders who are willing to come forward, ranging from officials who simply dislike Hegseth to others who believe he's a "threat to national security."
Investigators have already identified several lines of inquiry into Hegseth's tenure, including his mishandling of classified information, his conduct during President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, and his bombing spree of purported drug trafficking vessels that many legal experts consider acts of murder.
The Telegraph's sources acknowledged it would be difficult to convict Hegseth in the US Senate in the event that he's impeached by the House of Representatives, but there is hope that a relentless stream of damaging revelations could push Trump to fire him.
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Senate Democrats Demand Public Release of Pentagon's Secret Data Detailing Costs of Iran War
"Congress and the public need this information to determine the steps necessary to recover from this debacle," the lawmakers wrote.
Oct 19, 2026
Democrats on the US Senate Armed Services Committee called on the Pentagon on Monday to reveal how much President Donald Trump's Iran War is costing American taxpayers, citing "ongoing efforts to hide the true cost."
US Central Command (CENTCOM) told Congress that the war had cost $43.6 billion as of September 3. But in Monday's letter, Democratic lawmakers noted that this figure excluded the cost of damage caused by Iranian attacks on US bases and other facilities in the region. That estimate remains classified, but lawmakers have seen it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.). They called on CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper to release the estimate publicly.
"There is no rationale for classifying that cost estimate," the lawmakers wrote. "Our allies and our adversaries are, unfortunately, keenly aware of the extraordinary toll that this reckless war has taken on military readiness, and Congress and the public need this information to determine the steps necessary to recover from this debacle."
Iranian strikes have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases across eight Middle Eastern countries, according to a report released in September by the Pentagon's inspector general.
“Despite a lack of clarity and candor from [the Department of Defense], press reports of attacks, video footage, satellite images, and photos leaked to the media by active US service members have painted a dire picture of US bases and facilities damaged and destroyed by Iran,” the lawmakers wrote.
US officials and congressional aides have previously said the damage was far more extensive than the administration had publicly acknowledged and was expected to cost billions of dollars to repair.
More than 50,000 US troops have been deployed to support the Iran War. At least 23 US service members have died, and another 865 have been injured since Trump launched the war. The Pentagon has repeatedly failed to disclose casualties from the war, including dozens of troops injured in Iranian strikes, while moving other casualties out of its official Iran War tally.
At least 1,700 Iranian civilians have also been killed, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Iran's Health Ministry reported that more than 26,500 people were injured in the war's first 40 days. HRANA has reported more than 2,200 children injured.
Since the war began in late February, independent analysts have argued that the Pentagon has presented an incomplete picture of the war's costs.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies projected that the war had already cost roughly $40 billion by June, including an estimated $4 billion to $9.4 billion to repair and rebuild damaged US bases. At that time, the Pentagon's most recent public tally was just $29 billion, issued the previous month.
In May, Stephen Semler of the Center for International Policy argued that the Pentagon was also overlooking other critical war costs—underestimating the expense of replacing weapons and repairing bases, and ignoring spending outside the Pentagon, including military aid to Israel, which has joined the US in bombing Iran.
Accounting for those expenses, Semler estimated that the war had cost nearly $72 billion in just its first 60 days—about three times the Pentagon's estimate at the time.
Americans are also paying for the war beyond government spending. Last week, Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi estimated that the war had cost the average US household nearly $2,000—including $1,100 in higher energy prices, $540 in higher interest rates, and $360 in military costs.
Urging the military to respond to the letter, Warren said on Monday that “Americans deserve to know how much of their money is being burned on Trump’s war with Iran.”
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Pentagon Plans to Withhold Report on US Massacre of Iranian Kids Until After Midterms
One policy analyst wrote sardonically that the administration doesn't "want to remind voters before the midterms of the mass killing of schoolchildren on the first day of Trump's glorious war."
Oct 15, 2026
The Pentagon is reportedly planning to withhold until after the midterm elections the completed findings of its investigation into a devastating US strike on an elementary school in southern Iran, which killed more than 150 people—including 120 children—on the first day of President Donald Trump's illegal and deeply unpopular war.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that "top Pentagon officials have expressed their intention to hold off on releasing an internal report into the attack" on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab until after next month's midterms "at the earliest." The internal assessment is believed to have been effectively complete for months, and preliminary findings reported in early March determined that American forces hit the school with a Tomahawk missile due to "outdated" targeting information.
According to Bloomberg, Pentagon investigators "discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery, and an overreliance on AI contributed to the attack," which is regarded as one of the US military's worst atrocities against civilians in decades. Trump brushed off the massacre in remarks to reporters in June, saying: "Mistakes are made. War is nasty."
Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said in a statement that "the refusal to come clean about the attack on Minab is not just a shameful exercise to dodge accountability for a horrific war crime; it is actively risking these errors being repeated again."
"As the administration has dodged accountability on Minab and [a deadly strike on a sports hall hours later], it has engaged in further attacks that may be war crimes, including the bombing of a civilian home on Qeshm Island that killed a family and the bombing of a wedding party in Kuhestak that killed five, including two children," said Costello. "Ensuring these tragedies don’t repeat starts with accountability on Minab.”
International policy analyst Brian Finucane wrote sardonically that the Pentagon doesn't "want to remind voters before the midterms of the mass killing of schoolchildren on the first day of Trump's glorious war."
Bloomberg's reporting came as CNN published a story detailing internal US "strike plans" that include possibly dropping the so-called "mother of all bombs" on Iranian energy infrastructure.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) is the largest nonnuclear bomb in the US arsenal. In 2017, Trump became the first US president to deploy the weapon, authorizing the military to drop it on Afghanistan.
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, warned that using the bomb against Iran would risk "triggering another major escalatory spiral, potentially including Iranian attacks on critical regional energy infrastructure, with consequences for global markets and the US economy."
"This only reinforces the fundamental problem: Trump has no viable military solution to the Iran conflict," Toossi wrote. "Is he looking for one spectacular strike to project strength and declare victory? Or is he prepared to plunge the US into an even deeper, potentially endless war that could devastate the rest of his presidency, legacy, and the economy?"
Costello of NIAC said that "the Trump administration’s threats to commit war crimes in Iran cannot be normalized."
"President Trump acts on many of his threats, necessitating more urgent action to bring this illegal war of choice to a definitive end," he added.
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