President Donald Trump asked Congress on Wednesday to approve an additional $88 billion for the current fiscal year, mainly to cover costs tied to the war with Iran. The White House said the package is driven by the conflict’s heavy expenses, and the request is already seen as unlikely to pass.
About $70 billion of the total is meant to pay for Pentagon operational costs during the war, including $21 billion for weapons and ammunition. The request also includes $4 billion for a new program to launch a satellite group that would track air targets from space.
Beyond the war funding, Trump asked for $11 billion for farmers and $1.4 billion to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Africa. But the proposal faces strong resistance in the Democratic Party and appears to have little chance in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed and some Democratic support would be essential.
Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said the administration had failed for months to answer basic questions about the war’s goals, its justification, and its costs. She added that the request was not only about funding what she called the president’s destructive war, but also about securing tens of billions more for other Pentagon priorities outside the normal annual budget process. CNN reported this week, citing a new CSIS analysis, that the war with Iran has cost the U.S. government about $40 billion so far, including ammunition, destroyed equipment, and damage to bases, though not operational costs already built into the Pentagon’s 2026 budget.
