Treasury’s Bessent says US has ‘plenty’ of funds for Iran war

WASHINGTON - The US government has "plenty of money" to fund the war against Iran, but is requesting supplemental funding from Congress to ensure the military is well supplied in the future, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on March 22.

Mr Bessent, speaking on NBC News' Meet the Press programme, also ruled out pushing for any tax increases to fund the war.

The US military's request for US$200 billion (S$256 billion) in additional funding for the Iran war faces stiff opposition in Congress, with Democrats and even some Republicans questioning the need after large defence appropriations in 2025.

Mr Bessent defended the request without confirming the amount.

President Donald Trump has not yet sent a request for the Senate and House of Representatives to approve the sum and his administration has made clear that the number could change.

"We have plenty of money to fund this war," Mr Bessent said. "This is supplemental. President Trump has built up the military, as he did in his first term, as he is now doing in his second term, and he wants to make sure that the military is well supplied going forward."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last week that the extra money was needed "to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future."

He dismissed a question about possible tax increases as "ridiculous" and said that was "not at all" under consideration.

Early indications suggest that the war will be the most expensive for the US since the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Administration officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the Iran war had cost more than US$11 billion.

The Republican-led Congress has already approved record funding for the military since Mr Trump began his second term in January 2025. In February, he signed into law the Fiscal 2026 Defense Appropriations Act with about US$840 billion in funding.

And in summer 2025, over opposition from Democrats, the Republican-led Congress passed a sweeping tax cut and spending Bill that included US$156 billion for defence.

Mr Bessent also defended the Trump administration's moves in recent days to lift sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil. Doing so, he argued, would allow other countries besides China — including Japan and South Korea — to purchase the oil, while preventing oil prices from spiking to US$150 per barrel and reducing the overall revenues Iran and Russia would receive.

He said a Treasury analysis showed that the maximum extra amount of oil revenue Russia could get would be US$2 billion. REUTERS