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Published : 16 Jul 2026, 01:14 AM
The Trump administration has privately estimated that the US-Israeli war against Iran has cost Washington as much as $100 billion, more than three times the figure publicly acknowledged by US officials, according to NBC.
Citing six people familiar with the internal assessments, including three US officials, the American broadcaster reported that the Pentagon's broader estimate places the overall cost between $80 billion and $100 billion after accounting for operational expenses and the replacement of aircraft and military equipment destroyed during the conflict.
Among the biggest expected expenses is the reconstruction of the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) headquarters in Bahrain, which NBC said could cost close to $1 billion after Iranian strikes earlier this year caused extensive damage.
According to the report, headquarters facilities, piers, warehouses and military housing all require substantial repairs, while the overall bill could continue to rise as Iran resumes attacks on US military sites across the Middle East following President Donald Trump's declaration that a ceasefire had ended.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told lawmakers only two weeks ago that the conflict had cost “about $30 billion”, citing Pentagon figures.
The broadcaster said Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst had similarly told Congress on May 12 that the war had cost $29 billion, despite nearly six additional weeks of fighting before Vought's testimony.
The White House sought $88 billion in supplemental funding from Congress a week before Vought's appearance, including about $72 billion linked to the war.
According to the broadcaster, sources said the administration had understated or omitted significant operational costs while limiting details of damage to US military assets, making independent verification difficult.
NBC said the internal estimates broadly align with independent research by analyst Stephen Semler, who recently calculated the war's cost at more than $103 billion.
Semler estimated the total included $47 billion for weapons, $29 billion for military operations and $20 billion to replace destroyed assets, alongside billions more for aid to Israel and other government agencies.
He told NBC the administration had become “increasingly brazen in lying about the war's cost”, describing Vought's $30 billion estimate as “parody-level”.
NBC added that higher fuel prices following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have also imposed an estimated $69 billion cost on American consumers.
