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On May 6, Popular Information published a detailed analysis of the cost of the first 60 days of the Iran War. Our estimate was $71.8 billion. This was $43 billion higher than the official estimates released by the Pentagon at the time.
Our comprehensive accounting was cited by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense and in a May 27 letter from Senate Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to the Congressional Budget Office.
Nevertheless, many large media outlets continued to publish the administration’s lowball estimates.
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On June 24, the administration made its formal supplemental budget request for the initial phase of the Iran War. How much did the administration ask for? $72 billion.
Today, we crunch the numbers again and calculate the full cost of the first 120 days of the Iran War. It now exceeds $100 billion. Popular Information is a three-person newsletter that produces more reliable estimates of the cost of the Iran War than the Pentagon.
If you value our approach, we need your support. There are no billionaires or corporations backing this work. It only exists because of readers like you.
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Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee last week, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought said the US had spent $30 billion on the Iran War. The real cost is over $100 billion.
The Trump administration has offered Congress lowball war cost estimates before. On May 12, Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst, testifying alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, said the war had cost $29 billion. On April 29, Hurst said it was $25 billion. Despite repeated congressional requests, neither Hurst nor Hegseth has provided supporting documentation for the estimate. Vought hasn’t either.
The Trump administration itself has admitted that the war has cost far more than $30 billion. On June 24 — a week before Vought’s testimony — the White House formally requested $88 billion in supplemental funding from Congress, including $72 billion for the Iran War. No doubt Vought was aware of this funding request; after all, he wrote it — his signature appears on the second page.
Throughout the conflict, the cost of the Iran War has been habitually understated. Establishment media have parroted Hegseth’s defactualized cost estimates and similarly low estimates from establishment think tanks. The estimate that came closest to the Trump administration’s requested $72 billion for the war came from Popular Information. In May, we estimated the Iran War had cost $71.8 billion.
But that estimate was just for the war’s first 60 days, and the Trump administration plans on funding additional war costs through another reconciliation bill. In short — not all war costs are accounted for in that $72 billion figure. Another cost assessment is needed.
Despite de-escalation, costs continue to mount
Through four months, the US has spent more than $103 billion on the Iran War — larger than all but three countries’ military budgets. The figure refers only to direct war costs — the immediate budgetary costs directly tied to the war, including operations, personnel, and matériel.
This table provides an overview of the $103 billion in direct war costs incurred from February 28 to June 27, 2026.
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