Trump tells Iran to ‘get smart soon’ as Hegseth testifies to House Armed Services on $1.5T budget
Breaking News30 mins ago
Hegseth fires back at House Dems: ‘What would you pay to ensure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear bomb?’
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, defending the estimated $25 billion cost to date on the Operation Epic Fury on Iran and the $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request for 2027, fired back at House Armed Services Committee Democrats for questioning the costs.
“I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” Hegseth said during a fiery exchange with Rep. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Hegseth clashed sharply with House Democrats, turning a line of questioning about the financial cost of the Iran war into a broader argument about the price of stopping Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Khanna demanded answers on what the war would cost American households, which Hegseth rebuked as “gotcha questions about domestic things.”
“What would you pay to ensure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear bomb?” Hegseth repeated a number of times. “What would you pay?”
The exchange came as Khanna accused the Pentagon of failing to fully account for the war’s cost, arguing Hegseth’s $25 billion estimate did not reflect replacement weapons, damaged equipment or the broader hit to consumers.
“Your $25 billion number is totally off,” Khanna claimed. “It’s incompetence.”
Hegseth said any Iran-specific supplemental request would come in at “less than $25 billion.”
Khanna argued the White House had “betrayed” voters by dragging the country into a costly war with Iran, while Hegseth leaned on a simpler defense: whatever the price now, he suggested, it is worth paying to keep Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.
