The Biden administration drained the arsenal. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just told Congress what it's going to cost to fill it back up.
Earlier this month, President Trump claimed we had “unlimited “munitions to fight wars “forever,” but that is not exactly true.
The Pentagon has the highest budget of any department in the government, and because it was so badly mismanaged under the Biden administration, Secretary Hegseth just hit Congress with a reality bomb of what it will take to bring it back up to snuff.
When Donald Trump speaks or posts to Truth Social, every word he says is taken literally by the media and Democrats. This time, it stepped on Hegseth's announcement
With Hegseth on the verge of saying he needs money, Trump stated, “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” reported The Hill.
He continued, “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!). At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.”
The biggest critics of Operation Epic Fury have slammed the administration for putting the United States in a position of having another forever war, so Trump was trolling here, but it wound up undermining an upcoming announcement by Hegseth.
The United States was already running thin on munitions due to the massive aid packages that were sent to Ukraine since its war with Russia started.
One of the reasons the media is asking questions about munitions is because of the sheer volume of targets that have been hit during Operation Epic Fury.
According to recent reporting, as of Wednesday, March 18, 2026, more than 7,800 targets have been hit.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) also claims to have destroyed more than 120 vessels during the conflict.
Secretary Hegseth set the movement against this operation on fire this week, confirming that the Trump administration may be asking for another $200 billion to replenish the stockpiles used during this conflict as well as what has been sent out to Ukraine in the form of military aid.
The New York Post reported that Hegseth told reporters, “As far as the $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. It takes money to kill bad guys. So we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s being done.”
Reactions from Democrats are already pouring in, and they are as expected. For example, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) called the price tag “outrageous.” While other Dems pushed back against giving the administration a “blank check” to pay for this operation.
This will put Republicans in a rather precarious position, especially since we are now on pace to have passed through the $40 trillion debt mark by the time ballots are cast in the 2026 midterm elections. Again, I fully support this operation, but I have also been adamant that Republicans have to find a way to curb overall spending. You cannot run for office on a DOGE platform of cutting waste while increasing the national debt by more than $1 trillion every five months, and that is the pace we are on right now.
