Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a new round of questioning from lawmakers over the Iran war Tuesday, including some Republicans who have expressed concerns over the length of the conflict and its lack of congressional approval.
President Donald Trump is facing increasing pressure from the economic shocks of Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping corridor where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. Trump said Monday that the ceasefire is on “massive life support” and criticized Iran for its latest proposal, pointing to his demands that Iran significantly limit its nuclear program.
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Caine told the panel the Pentagon wants “a range and mix of capabilities that create outsized dilemmas for XI Jinping and others that are out there, to ensure that we maintain and sustain deterrence.”
He added that it’s “our primary focus” to assess the risks and ensure that Trump and Hegseth can always consider “a range of military options across the world.”
Caine’s statement comes hours before Trump departs for a summit with Xi.
The Joint Chiefs chair was responding to Rep. Hal Rogers. The Kentucky Republican is among several lawmakers raising concerns about China.
Earlier, the chairman of the full Appropriations Committee, Tom Cole, said “China is modernizing its military at a pace and scale that is alarming.”
Rogers, in his questioning of Caine, said he appreciated the administration’s push for more money to bolster U.S. manufacturing for weaponry but cautioned that “we’re competing against the speed” at which China can build up its military.
The Pentagon’s top budget official told Congress the Defense Department now believes the cost of Operation Epic Fury is “closer to $29 (billion).”
Jules Hurst, the Pentagon comptroller, told Congress in testimony Tuesday that the estimate has climbed from the $25 billion he provided lawmakers nearly two weeks ago “because of updated repair and replacement of equipment … and also just general operational costs.”
In response to lawmakers arguing the U.S. military is facing issues in replenishing the bombs and missiles it has expended in the war with Iran, Hegseth said the Pentagon is “well aware of all those dynamics.”
“The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” Hegseth claimed before adding “we know exactly what we have, we have plenty of what we need.”
The comments come just days after Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that it’s “shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines.”
Hegseth fired back on social media saying Kelly was “blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a (asterisk)CLASSIFIED(asterisk) Pentagon briefing he received.”
The defense secretary wouldn’t say anything specific about the next steps in Iran.
“We have a plan to escalate if necessary. We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets,” Hegseth told the subcommittee.
He was responding to Rep. Betty McCollum, the panel’s ranking Democrat, asking whether the administration has a “Plan B” to scale back operations.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its consumer price index rose 3.8% from April 2025. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6% from March as gasoline prices rose 5.4%.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called consumer core prices rose 0.4% last month from March and 2.8% from April 2025, relatively modest readings that suggest the energy price burst isn’t spilling over much yet into other prices.
Inflation had been dropping more or less steadily since peaking with a 9.1% year-over-year spike in prices in June 2022, a surge caused by supply chain bottlenecks at the end of COVID-19 lockdowns and an energy price shock following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But inflation remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Then, the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and Tehran responded by shutting off access to the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Energy prices rocketed in response.
Hegseth said the “admittedly a historic budget” the Pentagon is requesting from Congress is “a fiscally responsible budget, and it is a warfighting budget.”
Hegseth argued that the Trump administration inherited a defense industrial base that had been “hollowed out by years of America last policies, resulting in a diminished capability and capacity to project strength.”
However, in contrast with his Congressional testimony two weeks ago, Hegseth struck a much softer tone and did not personally criticize lawmakers in his initial remarks.
Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, specifically noted that “it was disappointing that you referred to members of both parties as defeatist” in previous testimony.
“I will not question your patriotism, nor will you question mine,” she added.
The defense secretary said the $1.5 trillion request also includes a large troop pay increase and “eliminates all poor or failing barracks” while investing heavily in projects championed by President Trump such as the Golden Dome and Golden Fleet.
Rep. Tom Cole, the top Republican on the powerful House money committee, added his concerns about Trump’s approach on the world stage, saying “America First has never meant American alone.”
“American power is most effective when it’s exercised in concert with like minded nations who share our interests and our values,” the chairman said in his opening remarks.
He added an endorsement of NATO as a “critical pillar of collective defense” in the world.
“American strength is not diminished when allies shoulder their share,” he said. “It’s multiplied, and we must continue to sharpen our strategic advantages.”
Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, did not explicitly mention the president or his criticism of NATO and traditional U.S. allies. But his remarks stood as a clear contrast to Trump’s statements and approach.
Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, a California Republican, and Ranking Member Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, opened the hearing expressing bipartisan worry over the Pentagon’s budget requests, especially to fund the Iran war.
They repeated their request that the Trump administration offer a more detailed breakout of what the war costs and how the Pentagon would spend any budget increase.
“The subcommittee needs to understand how the resources requested in this budget translates into real, measurable improvements in warfighting capability,” Calvert said, adding that he has “serious concerns” about the request.
“Questions persist about whether we are building the depth and reliance required for a high end conflict,” he said.
McCollum noted that lawmakers have “asked several times for a complete update on ammunition levels, and it has not been provided.”
The House Appropriations’ defense subcommittee has opened its Tuesday session to hear from President Trump’s top advisers on the Iran war.
The hearing is part of a series of congressional budget deliberations. The Pentagon is asking for $1.5 trillion for fiscal 2027, a roughly 44% increase from the current U.S. defense budget.
Hegseth has had contentious exchanges with Democrats in recent appearances on the Hill. But he’s been a staunch defender of the Iran war even as public opinion sours on the conflict.
Trump is scheduled to see doctors for a medical and dental checkup this month — his fourth publicized visit to medical experts since returning to office — in what the White House describes as an annual physical and regular preventive care.
Trump, who turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected U.S. president, will see his doctors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on May 26, the White House said in a brief statement Monday evening.
The president’s health has been the subject of tremendous scrutiny, so much so that Trump said he regretted getting imaging on his heart and abdomen last year because it raised public questions about his health.
Trump has recently remarked how good he feels despite his years. Earlier Monday, Trump that he feels the same as he did 50 years ago. “I feel literally the same,” he said at an Oval Office event. “I don’t know why. It’s not because I eat the best foods.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for Alabama to eliminate one of two largely Black congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections, creating an opening for Republicans to gain an additional U.S. House seat in a partisan battle for control of the closely divided chamber.
The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling in April that struck down a majority-Black U.S. House district in Louisiana as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, significantly weakening a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Alabama officials had pointed to the Louisiana case as a reason for the Supreme Court to end a judicial order to use a court-imposed House map until after the 2030 census. The high court on Monday overturned that order and directed a lower court to reconsider the case in light of the Louisiana decision. That could free the state to instead use a map approved in 2023 by the Republican-led legislature that includes only one district where Black residents comprise a majority.
Trump is set to leave Tuesday for Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping after weeks of trying, and failing, to persuade the Chinese government to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the two-month war, or at the very least, reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has veered between venting that China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, hasn’t done more to get the Islamic Republic in line, and acknowledging that Xi’s government helped de-escalate the conflict last month by nudging Tehran back to ceasefire talks when negotiations wobbled.
But ahead of the U.S. leader’s high-stakes visit, the White House has set low expectations that Trump will be able to persuade Xi to change China’s posture.
Instead, the administration seems determined not to let differences on Iran overshadow efforts to make headway on other difficult matters in the complicated relationship — ranging from trade to further Chinese cooperation to block exports of fentanyl precursors.
