Two months in, new reporting shows that Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war with Iran has cost taxpayers $25 billion so far, according to the Pentagon’s top budget official. This figure is the Trump administration’s first public disclosure of the total price tag of Trump’s war with Iran – and it doesn’t even include the billions more it will cost to repair the extensive damage to US military bases overseas. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth think there is near-unlimited money for their incompetence overseas, but not for basic programs that working families rely on. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress were all-too-eager to rip away Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that made health care affordable, public school funding, food assistance, and more to enrich themselves and their powerful friends. Instead of bankrolling yet another forever war overseas, working Americans could be getting so much more. Read more about what we could be spending $25 billion on instead of Trump’s war with Iran:
Trump’s $25 Billion Price Tag For War With Iran Could:
- Buy 5.4 billion school lunches, fully funding the program for nearly a year and a half.
- Fully fund home heating and cooling cost assistance for millions of American families for more than six years.
- Fund the national WIC program providing food assistance to women and children for three and a half years or eliminate WIC waiting lists for infants and pregnant women entirely for a quarter of a century.
- Fully fund Head Start for more than two years, giving millions of kids high-quality early childhood education.
- Fully reverse Trump’s cuts to food assistance for a year.
- Extend ACA tax credits that 22 million Americans rely on for roughly a year.
- Replace most lead pipes in the U.S. drinking water supply (between 53% and 88%), protecting tens of millions of families from lead poisoning and exposure.
- Fund 75% of deferred repairs and maintenance for K-12 public school buildings across the country.
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For the 2025–2026 school year, the USDA is reimbursing schools participating in the National School Lunch Program at a rate of $4.60 per free lunch served.