Hegseth LOSES IT: Demands TRILLIONS After Failed Iran War

Turning now to the Pentagon, which is currently shaking down the American taxpayer for some $1 .5 trillion.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth went before Congress and said that the greatest national security threat America faces if he doesn't get his outrageous budget.Let's take a listen.

As I have said before, not fully funding this department, the Department of War, and we know what that means, that that means 1 .5 trillion.Given the world that we live in and the disaster of what the Biden administration budgets gave us, not funding this department at $1 .5 trillion, I believe, is the greatest threat that our nation faces.

The greatest threat our nation faces is an extra $500 billion which they didn't originally need and made up a number out of completely whole cloth.This comes as the Pentagon Act, this part is real, actually is running out of money because of the Iran War.They are almost 100 % lying to us about the cost and I'll break that down just here in a moment.But one of the funny things is I've been reading a ton of this stuff behind the scenes.The lawmakers, they've been bringing the lawmakers to the Pentagon for four to six hours meetings where they have chips and dip and AI powered PowerPoints and they're just walking them through why they need all this money.And even the Republicans are like, I, I just don't get it.

They're like, where is the money going?And so the Pentagon doesn't know either.

And they don't, Oh, it's all their own audit.

It's complete.Exactly.So first of all, they haven't passed an audit in five years, but the thing is, is it's entirely a slush fund basically either for the Iran war or the whatever pet projects, you know, that these Trump people have got going on in the background.or drones or all kinds of these boondoggles that they have, they have no zero justification.And if you look, and I have, I've brought many of these up in the past of these past projects of the promise funding, I brought it up in our last show, $500 million to produce these new hundred or the, to reproduce these 155 millimeter shells, which were all given to Ukraine.And it's like,

oops, in the four years, so almost the entirety of the United States experience in World War II, before we appropriated that money to today, not a single shell has rolled off of the assembly line.500 million, 500 million, it's gone.So how did that happen?Nobody can actually tell you why that happened.Basically, they bought the wrong part or they made the wrong bet.I'm like, you couldn't have fixed it like two years ago, three years ago?

And then the army's like, don't worry about it.We'll eventually, we'll get it fixed.There are all kinds of these types of reports.And at the same time that they're shaking us down for 1 .5 trillion, The Pentagon is also stop releasing the F -35 report, which is due every single year to Congress, right?So they're covering that up, whatever happened with that F -35 over Iran, as well as the one that got clipped by the Houthis.They are stopping the release of all of these normal reports, which are congressionally mandated by Congress so that the public can figure this out, and then telling us with a straight face, if we don't get this $1 .5 trillion, then this is the greatest threat that our country faces.

It's insanity how this has been normalized.

from 1941 to 1945 cost the U .S.an estimated $4 .5 trillion in today's inflation -adjusted dollars.Hegseth wants to spend even more than that over the next four years.He is asking for more money than we spent in all of World War II.If you want another comparison, let's take a look at how much does Iran spend for their military?

$7 .4 billion.And we brought you earlier this week that Washington Post report where military analysts were saying, hey, we're running low on basically everything.We cannot safely sustain this pace at all.It's not just you know, it's not just certain categories, missile interceptors or whatever that we're running low on.We actually are running low on everything.We cannot continue in this direction.

And the White House is maybe not aware of what's going on here.I think any American has to look at this and be like, what are you doing?What is this money going towards?At a time when, you know, this administration and a lot of fanfare at the beginning about Doge, you know, we got to cut the debt and the deficit.No, we're spending way too much money.And then you'll just casually go in and demand $1 .5 trillion and say it's the greatest threat to the country.

If we don't fork it over, no, for a war that we don't even want to be in.I mean, it's complete and utter insanity.And so, of course, members of Congress, I mean, certainly Democrats, but Republicans are feeling some pressure on this, too, as he comes out, you know, hat in hand, begging for more billions to fund something that no one wanted in the first place.

Right.And actually, just I'm going to show everybody Pentagon math.So here's Hegseth on what the cost of the Iran war is.He says 37 .5 billion.Then I'll show you what it actually costs.Let's take a listen.

I've been listening patiently while you made your presentation.You estimated at one point that the cost of the war in Iran was $29 billion, but then added a caveat that there was a replacement of munitions, for example.Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this, the fifth month of the first year of this war in Iran?

Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37 .5 billion.

And it's a current activity, which we've been told about the exchange of fire back and forth in Iran, an indication that that number is going to go up in the months ahead.

Some of that number captures additional O &M mill pay and other that would be anticipated through the fiscal year.So some of that anticipates what costs would be going out in the future as well.

So the new number you've given me is what?$37 .5 billion.And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time?

through now for certain aspects of it, but also mill pay, O &M, other anticipated costs through September 30th, Senator.

All right.$37 .5 billion.That's Pentagon math.Now let's look at actual math.Let's put this one up here on the screen.The real cost is somewhere around 100 billion.

And by the way, even that is a little bit of a low ball.So how exactly does the Pentagon secretary go before Congress and say under oath that it's 37 .5 billion?Well, you actually kind of heard it in his response, is not counting munitions and replacement costs, which is kind of an insane way to actually count it.And if anything says that just operating operating costs absent of what was shot is $37 .5 billion should get everybody a heart attack.If the real cost is $100 billion, I just want to put this into perspective for everybody, for the 20 years that the United States spent trying to rebuild the Afghan National Security Forces, 20 years, we all remember what that project was like, that total cost of that operation was $100 billion.So $100 billion spent in 100 days versus 20 years.

20 years.That's how much more efficient we've become at throwing away money.And where did the money go exactly?We can actually see that they're flat going broke because of the way that the budget is allocated.So let's put the next one up here on the screen.And this again shows you why they're so desperate for this $1 .5 trillion cash injection.

The Pentagon faces a urgent budget shortfall because of the Iran war.Already, they are limiting training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness.They continue to short several other critical departments of the Pentagon.The White House has now asked for an immediate infusion of 67 billion.Remember, that's 30 billion more than Pete Hexeth just said that the Iran war costs, just to help cover some of the costs.If you continue to actually look at where some of this stuff is going, you could see that it comes largely from airstrikes,

It comes from replacement of munitions.It comes also from the operating costs of all of these different aircraft carriers, these strike groups, the forward deployment, the amount of resources and overtime and other things that they have to pay over here.This is just the direct cost of the war itself.This doesn't even factor in munition replacement, and that's with the $100 billion, that figure that I'm talking about.So the real cost is probably $200 to $300 billion, which is insane.I mean, that is so categorically nuts.

At the time, when I covered Afghanistan, I was like, this is more than we spent in Vietnam.And somehow we've blown out the Vietnam budget in 100 days.Think about it, that was 500 ,000 American troops were there, and all the other insanity that we're doing.To be clear, I'm talking specifically about the Afghan national security costs.But if you want to put Iraq into that too, four trillion, again, it took 16, 17 years.I mean, we're on track actually already.

And we don't even have any troops that are on the ground.I mean, imagine what that will cost.

And it also doesn't take into account rebuilding the bases that have been obliterated.But those bases may never be rebuilt.I mean, there may be no reason to go back to the clearly the basing strategy has completely failed.I don't know that those countries are going to be super excited about us going back in and rebuilding and setting up shop after all of of this whenever all of this is over, but yeah, you just look at it and you're like, Where is the money going?Like, what are you actually, you're out of everything, you're having to skimp on training and maintenance, and you're begging for more billions?Like, what is actually happening here?

I genuinely don't understand.And by the way, they don't really understand either because they can't pass an audit.So they don't know where the money is coming from, you know, going to either.Ryan made a good point.He's like, how do you know you're out of money when you can't even do your own audit?Like, how does that even work?

No, what happens is you check the bank account and you see that it's low, but you don't know where it all went.I mean, we're a small business.I can't even run shit like that.

They're the government.Yeah.And meanwhile, it's like, oh, well, we need ammo, but you know, that'll take years and we're low on this.And now that radar system is defunct.And what has happened?I mean, it really speaks to.

the way that we have outsourced all of this to these grifting military -industrial complex defense contractors.They jack up the price on everything.We're completely beholden to them.There's an absolute revolving door between the Pentagon and between industry.No one has any incentive to do anything intelligently or in a cost -effective way.Meanwhile, Iran is churning out their Shahid drones at low cost, like there's no tomorrow.

They actually, as a middle -income country, have maintained their industrial base, so they're able to do that and spin up production, no problem.Here we are, the supposed superpower, and there's no equivalent ability to flip a switch and in anything approaching a cost -effective manner, spin these things up.So it's just a complete indictment of the entire system that we have constructed.And Rubio has the gall to come out and be like, oh, the Iranians are spending all their money on their military rather than helping their people.First of all, We're attacking them, so they're under existential threat.I imagine there are people right now who are quite understanding of why the military budget needs to be upped a little bit while they're directly at war with us and with Israel.

And, by the way, everybody else in the region who, you know, these attacks are being launched from.Second of all, look at our country.Trump literally came out and said, well, we can't have nice things because we've got to spend all this money on our military.Like, this is what you're doing, $1 .5 trillion, and it's the greatest threat to our country if we don't hand all of that over to you.

for what?What will it get us?More munitions?Because that's what they always say, more money.Where's the bullets?The bullets don't exist.

It's like, where's the tomahawk missiles?Oh, that'll be six years.Sorry.Remember I covered the story how Japan, so we went to Japan and we shook them down.We're like, hey, you guys got to buysome tomahawks.

The Japanese are like, okay, we'll buy some.Here's our money, here's the order.And then you know what happened?We launched the Iran War and we're like, yeah, you're gonna have to wait a few years for those tomahawk missiles, if they come at all sometime in the future.That's a one minuscule example.And this whole supply chain, it's a nightmare.

From the tomahawk missiles, I was talking to you guys privately about gun cotton.There's one factory in the whole United States that makes gun cotton.It's one of the most critical inputs for these artillery sheds.One, it's in Radford, Virginia.If it goes on fire, which it's literally a highly flammable substance, good luck.We're out, and so is half of NATO, where they import 40 -something percent of their gun cotton also comes from that same factory.

What are we gonna do?And there's no modernization, there's no actual efficiency.You're talking about the Shothead drone, it costs $20 ,000 to $100 ,000 a pop.Something like these Tomahawk missiles, four or five million.And they have to be built at one factory in Arizona.Where is the money going?

For what purpose?Not to say government is a business, but the sheer even attempt at trying to have some level of efficiency, and then if you're going to say that we're running it like the government, we should make it hardened, as in not very vulnerable to potential disasters or problems, like a fire, I don't know, at one factory, which is deeply critical.They don't even do that.All they're doing is covering up all of the problems that exist in these gigantic boondoggles, and all of us are the ones who are paying for them.It only goes exponential.in terms of the cost.

That's what's so staggering when you compare the Afghan conflict to this one.You're like, how did you accomplish the boondoggle that we all saw in the withdrawal in just a 100 -day period?It's genuinely stunning.

One Tomahawk missile, single missile, 18 to 24 months from the moment of the order.That's what I was trying to say.

Two years.People who listen, they think I'm exaggerating.If anything, I'm underplaying it.You need to go.This is what they're trying to do.They're actually stopping, like I said earlier, the release of these open source documents on THAAD and on Tomahawk.

People accuse me of saying, how would you know the stockpile?I go, luckily, we actually have Congress, which is mandated.You just have to release the report.You don't know the exact number, but based on a general estimate, you can do plus or minus five to 10%.We actually do know a lot of this stuff has been highlighted in the open source environment.So yeah, almost 60 to 80 % of the fads are gone, gone.

I mean, it will take five years at a minimum just to replace that.And we continue to fire today.I mean, the actual cost of one actual cost estimate of the first 60 days of the war was 82 billion.That was 40 days ago.You know, it's like when you when you start to put all this stuff together, it's nuts.There's no accountability in our government.

And just, you know, continue this here.We have Mike Waltz getting grilled by Ted Lieu, who is also trying to underplay the amount of people who have now been killed in the Iran war.let's take a listen.

How many American troops have been killed in the Iran war?In these ongoing operations, 18.Now, President Trump has repeatedly stated that Iran's military was obliterated.On March 16th, President Trump stated that Iran's military was, quote, literally obliterated, end quote.

How is it possible that 482 American troops have been wounded and 18 service members killed by Iranian military that's been purportedly obliterated the Iranian Navy Air Force air defense system and industrial capacity have been Massively damaged if not completely ineffective, but this is a state that is trying to reconstitute This is a state a regime that is obsessed witha nuclear weapon.And it's a regime that still maintains some missile and drone capability that it's firing on all of its neighbors, including our bases.I think that's a pretty common sense evaluation.But if I need to explain it to you further, I can.

You need to explain to American people how an Iranian military that's been purportedly obliterated killed 18 U .S.

servicemembers and wounded 482 servicemembers.Weird.Been a few months.

You know, there was another hot exchange between them where Lou asked him, you know, how many U .S.troops have been wounded in Iran.And Walt's like, eh, maybe around 100.It's like, no, it's 482.How do you not know that?

And, I mean, it is utterly disgraceful.Obviously, he's getting caught there in the fact that Trump is constantly making these grandiose pronouncements about how they're obliterated and we won the war and their nuclear program is obliterated and all of these things.Well, if the nuclear program is obliterated, why are we now getting all this propaganda about Pickax Mountain?If the nuclear program was obliterated, why did we do this war in the first place?If the Iranian military is obliterated, how are they still able to kill our service members, take out our radars and wreak destruction across the entire region?So, you know, sometimes sometimes Trump's lies do meet with reality in a way that becomes somewhat undeniable.

Yeah, that's very true.Last thing, I just want to flag this for everybody, B6.This would be an insane thing and it looks like it's going to happen.Trump is now saying that Republicans should add Iran to the Russia sanctions bill.For those of you who don't know, the entire Congress is currently united in honoring Lindsey Graham by putting these massive sanctions on the Russian economy, so -called sanctions.per Trump in the honor of the great Lindsey Graham, who would have wanted this.

So what this piece of legislation would do is it would be even more of an economic declaration of war on the Russian economy.You can, you know, support that, not support that.I can tell you it'll certainly will continue to send oil prices higher because that's the way that they're mostly funding their economy.And it also, in terms of the Iranian economy, it would also give Trump massive presidential and discretionary power to use the same type of national security security even more of the black market oil, which is currently on the market.You may say that, oh, that's a good thing, but of course, coming at this current time, it gives Trump more extraordinary powers and would further hurt, actually, and probably drive oil prices even higher.So if that's something that you want, then I guess that that's something that you should support.

So that was the last thing I just wanted to put on everybody's radar.It's very, very underplayed in Washington, because the whole neocon media supports it, but it's a terrible piece of legislation that they didn't want to pass originally, as they knew, it would genuinely leave us no negotiating options whenever it came to the Kremlin.And yet, of course, in honor of Lindsey, that's what we all have to do.All right, let's get to the polls.