June 20, 2026
By Mike Ludwig
In Iran, at least 3,468 people were killed over several weeks of U.S.-Israeli strikes. Recovery for Iran is expected to be costly after the strikes hit critical infrastructure like bridges, manufacturing, and oil depots, as well as civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools. As part of the agreement signed this week, the U.S. has said it would work with regional partners create a $300 billion reconstruction fund.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., as Trump seeks nearly $1.5 trillion in military spending and puts pressure on military contractors to rapidly replenish depleted weapons stockpiles, critics say Congress must reject funding for more wars and reverse harmful cuts to the social safety net.
While the memorandum puts the U.S. and Iran on a path toward more substantive diplomatic negotiations, Trump suggested that bombing could resume if the Iranians “don’t behave.” Meanwhile, the White House is quietly scrambling to replenish stockpiles of high-tech missiles and interceptors after expending massive resources bombing Iran and defending Israel from retaliatory strikes in a bloody war that even some Republicans openly call a foreign policy blunder.
To speed up weapons manufacturing, Trump has reportedly repeatedly summoned military contractors to the White House. On June 11, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950, a law that gives the president broad authority to compel private companies to produce goods for the government in emergency situations. In the order, Trump declared that “conditions exist which may pose a direct threat to the national defense or its preparedness programs,” including fragile supply chains and limited manufacturing capacity for replacing “munitions, missiles, and equipment.”
However, as many analysts have pointed out, Iran poses no direct threat to the U.S. homeland. The invocation of the Defense Production Act was the latest sign that the Iran’s military capabilities surprised Trump as the war unfolded — and also yet another sign that private military firms could continue to make excessive profits, even as the war draws down.
The same day Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, the Republican-led Senate Armed Service Committee vote 18-9 to advance a $1.2 trillion budget for the Pentagon in 2027, with multiple Democrats voting against the legislation. Companion legislation advanced in the House on June 5. But to pay for the war on Iran, Trump is demanding Republicans pass an additional $350 billion budget reconciliation package on a party-line vote.
Since the president unilaterally decided to launch the all-out assault on Iran with Israel in February without seeking congressional approval, his request for an additional $350 billion is being met with skepticism by some members of the Senate GOP majority, which faces an angry electorate in the November midterm elections.
Under Trump’s direction, the Republican-led Congress slashed budgets in 2025 for health care, food assistance, and international aid while pumping the administration with increased funding for foreign wars and a dramatically increased budget for immigration policing and his deadly mass deportation campaign. Now Trump is asking Congress for a “spending bonanza” on weapons that he can use to start more wars overseas, according to Lindsay Koshgarian, the program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and an expert of military spending.
“Just one short year ago, Trump and his friends in Congress cut food stamps and Medicaid for millions of Americans,” Koshgarian said in an email. “Just weeks ago, Trump bragged about not thinking of Americans’ financial struggles in his decisions about whether or not to stop the war on Iran.”
Where an Additional $350 Million Could Be Spent by the Military
On February 28, a U.S.-made ballistic missile was used in an attack that struck a gym and adjacent elementary school near a military facility in Lamerd in southern Iran, according to a visual analysis by The New York Times. A women’s volleyball team was using the sports facility at the time, and more than 20 people, including children, were killed in the strike.
With help from munitions efforts, the Times determined the attack was conducted with a short-range ballistic missile designed by military contractor Lockheed Martin and known as a Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM. The missile is designed to explode above the target and spray small tungsten pellets as deadly shrapnel. A single PRsM missile costs $1.6 million. Trump’s military budget request for 2027 includes $95 billion to buy more bombs and missiles, according to the National Priorities Project.
The attack on the gym occurred on the first day of the war, the same day that a long-range U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile struck a school in the city of Minab, killing more than 150 people, most of them children.
Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth disbanded internal military watchdogs that worked to prevent civilian casualties, and the U.S. has not taken publicly responsibility for the civilian massacres. However, Hegseth and his underlings are keenly focused on producing more of the high-tech missiles used in attacks like the one on Lamerd. Trump has “expressed anger” about weapons stockpiles running low as cheap Iranian drones evaded U.S. defense systems across the Persian Gulf, according to NBC News.
In May, Lockheed Martin announced monthly, direct discussions with the Department of “War” as part of a broader effort among military suppliers to significantly increase productions of PrSM missiles and other high-tech weapons. One of five major defense contractors that dominate Pentagon contracts, Lockheed Martin alone plans to spend up to $9 billion building precision missiles and interceptors by 2030. The White House’s proposed budget for the Department of “War” includes $2.2 billion for PrSM missiles and $5.8 billion for Tomahawks.
Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to the top five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion), according to the Costs of War project at Brown University. In comparison, the U.S. spent $356 billion during the same period of time on foreign policy initiatives devoted to diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid. Shortly after taking power, the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cut humanitarian aid programs by 85 percent.
The push for an additional supplemental budget to cover the cost of the war on Iran comes as U.S. consumers face rising war-related inflation over things like food and fuel. For several weeks, the U.S. and Iran held dueling blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping artery for fossil fuels and agricultural fertilizer. Since the start of the war, additional fuel costs to consumers have topped $40 billion, or more than $300 per household, according to Costs of War. That’s more money than is needed to completely redo the U.S. air traffic control system after recent deadly accidents.
“Americans need health care, child care, affordable food, and a roof over their heads,” Koshgarian said. “No one should have to give those things up so that Trump can fight more wars.”
By Mike Ludwig
The GOP is souring on
Trump’s $1.5 trillion military budget as the president pushes for yet another
reconciliation bill.
The day before he
signed a memorandum of understanding with Iranian leaders, President Donald
Trump said he wants to put the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in the “rearview
mirror.” But even if the memorandum — which puts an end to the war for at least
the next 60 days — holds, the enormous costs of the war itself will not
disappear with the next news cycle.
In Iran, at least 3,468 people were killed over several weeks of U.S.-Israeli strikes. Recovery for Iran is expected to be costly after the strikes hit critical infrastructure like bridges, manufacturing, and oil depots, as well as civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools. As part of the agreement signed this week, the U.S. has said it would work with regional partners create a $300 billion reconstruction fund.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., as Trump seeks nearly $1.5 trillion in military spending and puts pressure on military contractors to rapidly replenish depleted weapons stockpiles, critics say Congress must reject funding for more wars and reverse harmful cuts to the social safety net.
While the memorandum puts the U.S. and Iran on a path toward more substantive diplomatic negotiations, Trump suggested that bombing could resume if the Iranians “don’t behave.” Meanwhile, the White House is quietly scrambling to replenish stockpiles of high-tech missiles and interceptors after expending massive resources bombing Iran and defending Israel from retaliatory strikes in a bloody war that even some Republicans openly call a foreign policy blunder.
To speed up weapons manufacturing, Trump has reportedly repeatedly summoned military contractors to the White House. On June 11, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950, a law that gives the president broad authority to compel private companies to produce goods for the government in emergency situations. In the order, Trump declared that “conditions exist which may pose a direct threat to the national defense or its preparedness programs,” including fragile supply chains and limited manufacturing capacity for replacing “munitions, missiles, and equipment.”
However, as many analysts have pointed out, Iran poses no direct threat to the U.S. homeland. The invocation of the Defense Production Act was the latest sign that the Iran’s military capabilities surprised Trump as the war unfolded — and also yet another sign that private military firms could continue to make excessive profits, even as the war draws down.
The same day Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, the Republican-led Senate Armed Service Committee vote 18-9 to advance a $1.2 trillion budget for the Pentagon in 2027, with multiple Democrats voting against the legislation. Companion legislation advanced in the House on June 5. But to pay for the war on Iran, Trump is demanding Republicans pass an additional $350 billion budget reconciliation package on a party-line vote.
Since the president unilaterally decided to launch the all-out assault on Iran with Israel in February without seeking congressional approval, his request for an additional $350 billion is being met with skepticism by some members of the Senate GOP majority, which faces an angry electorate in the November midterm elections.
Under Trump’s direction, the Republican-led Congress slashed budgets in 2025 for health care, food assistance, and international aid while pumping the administration with increased funding for foreign wars and a dramatically increased budget for immigration policing and his deadly mass deportation campaign. Now Trump is asking Congress for a “spending bonanza” on weapons that he can use to start more wars overseas, according to Lindsay Koshgarian, the program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and an expert of military spending.
“Just one short year ago, Trump and his friends in Congress cut food stamps and Medicaid for millions of Americans,” Koshgarian said in an email. “Just weeks ago, Trump bragged about not thinking of Americans’ financial struggles in his decisions about whether or not to stop the war on Iran.”
Where an Additional $350 Million Could Be Spent by the Military
On February 28, a U.S.-made ballistic missile was used in an attack that struck a gym and adjacent elementary school near a military facility in Lamerd in southern Iran, according to a visual analysis by The New York Times. A women’s volleyball team was using the sports facility at the time, and more than 20 people, including children, were killed in the strike.
With help from munitions efforts, the Times determined the attack was conducted with a short-range ballistic missile designed by military contractor Lockheed Martin and known as a Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM. The missile is designed to explode above the target and spray small tungsten pellets as deadly shrapnel. A single PRsM missile costs $1.6 million. Trump’s military budget request for 2027 includes $95 billion to buy more bombs and missiles, according to the National Priorities Project.
The attack on the gym occurred on the first day of the war, the same day that a long-range U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile struck a school in the city of Minab, killing more than 150 people, most of them children.
Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth disbanded internal military watchdogs that worked to prevent civilian casualties, and the U.S. has not taken publicly responsibility for the civilian massacres. However, Hegseth and his underlings are keenly focused on producing more of the high-tech missiles used in attacks like the one on Lamerd. Trump has “expressed anger” about weapons stockpiles running low as cheap Iranian drones evaded U.S. defense systems across the Persian Gulf, according to NBC News.
In May, Lockheed Martin announced monthly, direct discussions with the Department of “War” as part of a broader effort among military suppliers to significantly increase productions of PrSM missiles and other high-tech weapons. One of five major defense contractors that dominate Pentagon contracts, Lockheed Martin alone plans to spend up to $9 billion building precision missiles and interceptors by 2030. The White House’s proposed budget for the Department of “War” includes $2.2 billion for PrSM missiles and $5.8 billion for Tomahawks.
Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to the top five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion), according to the Costs of War project at Brown University. In comparison, the U.S. spent $356 billion during the same period of time on foreign policy initiatives devoted to diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid. Shortly after taking power, the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cut humanitarian aid programs by 85 percent.
The push for an additional supplemental budget to cover the cost of the war on Iran comes as U.S. consumers face rising war-related inflation over things like food and fuel. For several weeks, the U.S. and Iran held dueling blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping artery for fossil fuels and agricultural fertilizer. Since the start of the war, additional fuel costs to consumers have topped $40 billion, or more than $300 per household, according to Costs of War. That’s more money than is needed to completely redo the U.S. air traffic control system after recent deadly accidents.
“Americans need health care, child care, affordable food, and a roof over their heads,” Koshgarian said. “No one should have to give those things up so that Trump can fight more wars.”
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