White House budget chief 'working on' funding Iran war

The cost of the war thus far has been the subject of debate, but is estimated to have reached as high as $50 billion since its start in late February.

By Ben Whedon

Published: April 16, 2026 11:40am

White House Budget Director Russ Vought on Thursday indicated that the White House had not finalized its spending requests to support the Iran war, but that it would do so in the near future.

The Trump administration has sought a broader $1.5 trillion defense budget, but plans to submit a specialized supplemental spending request for the Iran war. Vought addressed the matter while on Capitol Hill.

“We are working on it. We do want to continue to assess when it will be needed by and how long the operations will last,” Vought told Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., according to The Hill.

The cost of the war thus far has been the subject of debate, but is estimated to have reached as high as $50 billion since its start in late February. The war began that month with joint Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran that took out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.