Mary Trump Says Donald Trump's Iran War, Promised in Weeks, Is Past Six Months
Trump told Time the war kept going because he "decided to go further." His niece points to a CBO bill of $38 billion through Aug. 1, with more added every month.
Mary Trump says Donald Trump's war with Iran, which he first described in terms of weeks, has now run more than six months. By Thursday, Oct. 15, it had lasted about seven and a half months. She cited a Congressional Budget Office estimate that it cost $38 billion in its first five months.
On an episode of The Mary Trump Podcast, the president's niece read aloud from his 75-minute interview with Time magazine and then answered it.
"Donald originally described the Iran war in terms of weeks. And as that reporter pointed out, it has been more than six months now," she said.
What Donald Trump Told Time About the Iran War
The Time reporter told Trump he had first said the war would take about six to eight weeks and asked why it was lasting so long. According to the transcript Mary Trump read, the president answered, "Only because I wanted to go further. I took them out. I could have stopped them, but I wanted to go further."
He added: "But when I said I was going to be there for a short period of time, I was. And then I decided to go further." He said he did so because he did not want Iran to "come back in some different form."
That answer treats the longer war as Trump's own choice and not as a missed deadline. His own estimates in the war's first month were shorter than the reporter's six to eight weeks. The war began on Feb. 28. In early March he spoke of "four to five weeks" and "four weeks," and on March 31 he said the job could be done in "two weeks, maybe three," according to a PolitiFact fact-check published by WRAL. PolitiFact rated false Trump's later claim that his timeline referred only to the nuclear threat and not to the war as a whole.
The Iran War's Cost to Taxpayers
Mary Trump then turned to the cost.
"The Congressional Budget Office estimates the war has already cost the United States taxpayer $38 billion. And that's just through August 1st. And costs are projected to increase by roughly $3 billion every month." — Mary Trump
She added, "I have to guess that that is a very low estimate."
The nonpartisan CBO did put the Defense Department's cost at about $38 billion from Feb. 28 through the end of July. The estimate comes largely from replacing munitions and equipment lost in battle, PBS NewsHour reported when the analysis came out in September. The office projected the war would keep costing "up to $3 billion a month or more," depending on how intense the fighting is. Its figures leave out the costs of troops killed or wounded and long-term veterans' care.
The Pentagon's own number is higher. In a report to Congress, the department put its estimated total cost at $43.6 billion through Sept. 3, Bloomberg Government reported. That figure combines about $11.2 billion already obligated with an estimated $28.1 billion to replace munitions and about $4.3 billion to replace equipment. It does not include damage from Iranian attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East.
What the Pentagon Has Confirmed on U.S. Troop Deaths
Mary Trump also said that "as many as 23 American service members have died, but we don't know for sure because Hegseth's Pentagon won't tell us."
The Pentagon's official count is lower. Late Friday, Oct. 9, it raised the number of service members who have died in its operations against Iran to 21 and listed 865 wounded, the Spokesman-Review reported. With one more training-related death, 22 troops have died in the Middle East since Feb. 28, the paper reported. The increase followed a Washington Post report in September that more troops had died than the department's public database showed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first called that report "a complete lie." The Pentagon has since added a casualty category for deaths "pending adjudication."
Mary Trump did not say where her figure of 23 came from.
Iran War and the Midterms
Mary Trump called it Trump's "illegal unconstitutional war of choice." She has spent much of her show criticizing her uncle, including over his Russian diesel deal.
But the length of the war is also worrying some on the right. Steve Bannon has warned that war-weary Trump voters could stay home in the midterms.
Trump's job approval stands at 37.8 percent, with 59.2 percent disapproving, according to PolitiKool's polling average. Democrats lead by 7.8 points in PolitiKool's polling average of the generic congressional ballot.
In the Time interview, Trump said Iran wants to make a deal, "but I want to make the real deal." He did not say when the war would end.
Sources
- Iran war has cost the U.S. more than $38 billion so far, budget office says — PBS NewsHour — Confirms the CBO's $38 billion estimate through Aug. 1, driven largely by replacing munitions and equipment lost in battle, and its projection of up to $3 billion a month or more.
- Pentagon Puts Iran Cost at $43.6 Billion in Estimate to Congress — Bloomberg Government — The Pentagon's estimated total cost of $43.6 billion through Sept. 3: about $11.2 billion obligated, an estimated $28.1 billion to replace munitions and about $4.3 billion to replace equipment, excluding damage to bases.
- Fact-check: How long did Trump say the Iran war would last? — WRAL — A PolitiFact fact-check published by WRAL: Trump's early-March estimates of four to five weeks and four weeks, his March 31 estimate of "two weeks, maybe three," and PolitiFact's False rating of his claim about the nuclear threat.
1 more source
- Pentagon raises official toll of troops who died during war with Iran to 21 — Spokesman-Review — The Pentagon's late-Friday (Oct. 9) acknowledgment of 21 deaths and 865 wounded, a training-related death bringing Middle East deaths since Feb. 28 to 22, and the earlier dispute over the Washington Post report.