War Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to questions on how the US was going to prevent a “forever war” in the quest to denuclearize Iran and why the Pentagon asked for an additional $200 billion to fund the war.
The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a $200 billion supplemental package to continue the war, though it must be approved by Congress.
Per the Washington Post:
The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.
That number would far surpass the costs of the administration’s massive airstrike campaign to date and instead seek to urgently increase production of critical weaponry expended as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck thousands of targets over the past three weeks, according to three other people familiar with the matter, who confirmed that the Defense Department is seeking packages of that size.
It remains unclear how much the White House will ultimately ask congressional lawmakers to approve. Some White House officials do not think the Pentagon’s request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress, the senior administration official said. The Pentagon has floated several different proposed funding requests over the past two weeks, according to the official and three other people familiar with the matter.
The cost of the war in Iran has rapidly grown, exceeding $11 billion in the first week alone, according to multiple officials. Shortly after the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign began late last month, the Trump administration started preparing an additional funding request to help cover the costs, a process often required to ensure the military can maintain its readiness to defend against threats around the world even during wartime.
The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese pressed Hegseth on the funding request and the question of “How do you denuclearize the country while also avoiding this, you know, forever war?”
Hegseth presented the Trump Administration’s justifications for the war, but he did not answer specifically how the war would come to an end. He only reiterated the Trump Administration’s position that Iran was continuing their nuclear and ballistic missile development after the US launched Operation Midnight Hammer, destroying three Iranian nuclear facilities last Summer.
As for the $200 billion request, he said, “I think that number could move, obviously,” adding “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.”
He further compared President Trump’s stewardship of the money to that of former President Joe Biden. Trump, he said, is still working to “rebuild the military,” but the US is “still dealing with the environment that Joe Biden created, which was, which was depleting those stockholds and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine,” he said.
WATCH:
Reese: The Vice President has often emphasized that the goal of this war is to do denuclearize Iran while also avoiding a larger quagmire. I know that you touched on this. I’d like you to expand on how do you do that? How do you denuclearize the country while also avoiding this, you know, forever war? And then there was a report last night that the Pentagon asked the White House for $200 billion for Iran war supplemental. Can you confirm this and can you explain why a package this large is necessary?
Hegseth: Well, first of all, none of this would have been possible without Midnight Hammer, without that audacious mission, with very clear goals that did obliterate their ability to enrich and the capabilities they have in those facilities. So, it created the conditions for Iran to step forward and say, “Okay, you can reach out and touch us like that in our nuclear ambitions, you can see that we’re still trying to do this. Let’s make a deal.”
And President Trump put our two best folks on it, Steve and Steve and Jared, and they worked diligently, earnestly— I watched it— to try to pursue that deal. And ultimately, I think the whole time, Iran sort of said, “Well, we’ll talk as we build more missiles and as we build more UAVs, and we create this conventional umbrella so that, if we chose to, we could try to reconstitute the program,” and sort of naively thinking that President Trump wouldn’t do something about it. And that’s why, as Secretary Rubio has said and I’ve said, it’s the conventional umbrella that was growing, and growing, and growing that was meant to protect that nuclear capability. So, you have to address both what happened with Midnight Hammer and what happened with that as well.
As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. 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. 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. 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 stockholds and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine, which is— every time we reach back and look at any sort of a challenge we have, it goes back to “Well, send it to Ukraine.” Ultimately, we think this should be these— 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.
The post WATCH: War Sec Pete Hegseth Asked How US Plans to Denuclearize Iran While Avoiding Forever War and Why Pentagon Requested $200 Billion from White House to Supplement Iran War appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.