What the Iran war cost the Pentagon, the economy — and Trump - CNN

- The 100-day war with Iran cost the Pentagon between $35 billion and $40 billion and 13 American service members their lives.

- Gas prices surged above $4 per gallon and diesel topped $5, costing American households and businesses billions in extra fuel expenses.

- Trump has declared victory despite inflation hitting 4%, his approval rating at 37% and the nation's oil reserves at their lowest since 1983.

With an agreement signed and further talks set to commence, the US war with Iran is at a halt, at least for now, and President Donald Trump is telling Americans they have won.

“’YOU’RE WELCOME!” Trump wrote on Thursday in a post on his social media platform, where he also ticked through benefits of his memorandum of understanding to keep negotiating with Iran for the next 60 days.

“OIL IS FLOWING, IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON (THE WORLD WILL BE SAFE!), THE STOCK MARKETS ARE ROARING, JOBS ARE AT RECORDS, AND PRICES ARE DROPPING (AFFORDABILITY!). OUR COUNTRY IS STRONG, SAFE, AND RESPECTED LIKE NEVER BEFORE,” Trump said.

But an objective analysis of what has changed after more than 100 days of the conflict, in which 13 American service members lost their lives along with more than 7,500 civilians in the region, suggests a more nuanced story than the one Trump put in all caps.

Here are some of the big numbers and trends that draw a fuller picture of how the war affected the US:

The sticker price of the war is around $40 billion, but the total price is much higher

The conflict cost the Department of Defense is about $40 billion, according to preliminary numbers from an upcoming analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The figure includes cost of munitions, destroyed equipment and damage to bases, but does not incorporate operational costs that were already factored into the department’s more than $1 trillion fiscal year 2026 budget, Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS, told CNN.

The Pentagon has submitted a request for $80 billion in supplemental funding, two US government sources told CNN. Less than $20 billion of that total request is related to immediate needs from the Iran war, according to one source, who added that the figure does not include costs like repairs to facilities and US basing in the region.

That includes around $26 billion spent on munitions

Munitions were the largest expenditure, Cancian said, adding that there was a “high use” of weapons that were long-range, highly sophisticated and expensive.

For example, a Tomahawk missile costs around $2.5 million, and the US used about a thousand of them, according to Cancian.

The war put a strain on the US’ stockpile of weapons

Experts and officials tell CNN that the military used significant portions of key missile inventory. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act earlier in June to force defense companies to manufacture more weapons.

The daily cost of the war waned as it went on with less frequent strikes and decreased use of expensive weapons, according to CSIS, which estimated that the first 100 hours of the war cost $3.7 billion. On day 12, the cumulative cost was around $16.5 billion, the think tank found.

While the Defense Department bore the brunt of the expenses, the conflict cost other agencies, such as Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, $1 billion, according to CSIS’ preliminary numbers. Approximately $165 million of that was related to “higher fuel prices,” Cancian said.

The war drove the price of gas up, a bitter pill for Trump, who has made reliance on fossil fuels drilling a key part of his agenda. But while the US has been the top oil and gas producer for years, the market is complex and worldwide. Gas prices rose from an average of less than $3 per gallon around the country to well more than $4 during much of the war.

Now that oil traffic is set to flow again through the Strait of Hormuz, look for prices to come down. But it will likely take time. The US average was $3.97 a gallon on Friday. On Thursday, it dropped below $4 for the first time since March 30.

According to an energy cost tracker from Brown University, American households have spent more than $253 more than what they would have paid if there was no war.

Diesel is up even more, which has a knock-on effect