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.
[Context: The article discusses the contradiction between Donald Trump’s promises of frugal governance and the significant military spending on the Iran war.] [Fact Check: The claims made about the spending on the Iran war and its comparison with other agency budgets should be verified for accuracy.]
:fill(black)/2026/03/18/vignette-vierge-69bb10ee5d06a933683222.jpg "A meteor shakes houses as it crosses the American sky")
