US spent $11.3bn on bombs in the first six days of the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran – key US politics stories from 18 March 2026 at a glance
Part of Donald Trump’s pitch to voters was that, if he became president again, he would rein in government spending and not send US troops to war. He may have campaigned with promises, but he’s governing with billions of dollars worth of bombs dropping on Iran.
In the six days that followed the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on 28 February, $11.3bn was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths, the Pentagon has told lawmakers. This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war.
The cost of the first week of the Iran war would be more than enough to fully fund the Environmental Protection Agency this year (at $8.8bn), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($9.2bn) or the National Cancer Institute ($7.4bn). The $11.3bn is also more than the total amount allocated this year for federal scientific research funding, via the National Science Foundation.
“This just shows a disturbing prioritization of militarism over the health and welfare of the American public,” said Adam Gaffney, a professor at Harvard Medical School who has studied the health impacts of the administration’s policies.
The US spent $11.3bn on just the first week of its military assault on Iran. This huge expenditure dwarves the annual budgets of many of the public health and scientific agencies the Trump administration has sought to cut, raising stark questions about the country’s priorities.
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Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence who in 2019 was selling “No War With Iran” T-shirts, told the Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday that US strikes on Iran had been a strategic success.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started buying location data on Americans, FBI director Kash Patel said under oath at the Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing on Wednesday.
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Markwayne Mullin defended his ability to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and expressed regret for comments he made about a US citizen killed by immigration agents at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, which began on an unusually quarrelsome note when a fellow Republican senator accused him of encouraging violence.
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White House officials have grown increasingly frustrated with Republican representative Nancy Mace, accusing her of complicating efforts to evacuate Americans stranded in the Middle East by attempting to conduct her own rescue missions, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Fed officials faced a confluence of issues to consider in their meeting this week: soaring oil and gas prices, fluctuating inflation that still remains above the Fed’s target of 2% and a weakened job market that unexpectedly saw 92,000 losses last month.
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The Covid-19 pandemic’s early death toll was much higher than the official US count, according to a new study that spotlights dramatic disparities in the uncounted deaths.
A fire onboard the USS Gerald R Ford, injuring sailors and destroying 100 beds, is the latest mishap to plague the world’s largest aircraft carrier on a marathon deployment some argue has sapped crew morale.
The confirmation hearing for Markwayne Mullin, Donald Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), left disaster management officials and experts concerned about what his tenure would mean for the future of the main US disaster response agency.
US lawmakers, union leaders and several community organizations expressed their shock and disgust after several women shared allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior and abuse by the late labor organizer César Chávez.
Instagram will stop encrypting private messages between users starting in May, after enduring years of criticism from law enforcement and child safety groups over the feature.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 17 March 2026.