Benjamin Giltner
Yesterday, the White House sent Congress an $87.6 billion supplemental budget request. A large portion of it, $67.1 billion to be exact, would be for national defense—namely to fund Operation Epic Fury. Compared to the $1.5 trillion defense budget requested by the White House for 2027, $67.1 billion looks like a drop in the bucket.
Still, this supplemental will add billions more to national defense spending. Much of the requested 2027 spending is unnecessary, and this defense supplemental is no different.
The war in Iran—a senseless war—has drained US munition supplies, most by over half their total inventory. This puts the United States in a position to either cut its defense commitments or build more munitions. Predictably, the Trump administration chose the latter, requesting $21 billion to resupply America’s depleted munitions. Worse, $17.3 billion of the requested supplemental would go toward the war’s operational expenses, adding to the roughly $113 billion this war has already cost.
The defense supplemental brings to light a deeper point on defense budgeting: It’s always more expensive than reported. The Project on Government Oversight, earlier this month, released a timely report detailing the hidden costs in America’s military spending. No single budget governs military spending, and a decent portion comes from expenses outside the Department of Defense (DOD). For instance, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that in 2025, the United States spent $954 billion on its military. But when using USAspending.gov, the actual military outlays rise to $1.4 trillion, which includes actual DOD spending, nuclear weapon expenses (which the Department of Energy oversees), and troop retirement and health benefits. And this figure is likely lowballing the actual total, as it excludes interest payments that come from borrowing for America’s defense spending. All this is to say that the already absurd defense budgets for 2026 and 2027 are going to be much higher than initially reported.
All in all, the defense portion of this supplemental is reactive to a pointless war against Iran and would waste billions more of Americans’ money with no benefit to them.
