Iran War Update

The Senate voted down a War Powers resolution that would have blocked Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, so the war continues. Trump’s team is still selling the decision with shifting rationales: claims Iran was “two weeks” from nuclear material or a bomb, warnings about longer-term ICBM capability, and broader talk of “cumulative threats.” Karoline Leavitt added that Trump had a “feeling” Iran was about to strike US assets, and Trump again repeated the “two weeks” nuclear line today. In the same briefing, Leavitt attacked Biden as “stupid and incompetent” for supporting Ukraine — even as Ukraine is now being asked to help with US air defense.

The practical problem is cost and capability. Hegseth said he didn’t anticipate Iranian drones would be this difficult to defeat cheaply, with the US using expensive Patriot interceptors against low-cost drones, and reports say US stocks of Patriot and other interceptors are running low. The Washington Post reports the US may be “days away” from having to prioritize which targets to intercept and which to let through. Trump has called defense contractor executives to the White House Friday to accelerate weapons production, raising the obvious question of why that wasn’t done before the fighting began.

I’m also covering the widening fallout: the Pentagon’s estimated cost of about $1 billion per day and Trump asking Congress for $50 billion more; the deaths of six US service members in Kuwait in a suspected Iranian drone attack and Hegseth blaming media coverage for trying to make Trump look bad, contrasted with the Joint Chiefs chair opening by naming the fallen. There are also reports of a US submarine attack on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka with at least 101 missing and 78 wounded, and Iran launching a ballistic missile at NATO ally Turkey that was intercepted. The White House says ground troops aren’t part of the plan “for now,” while reports suggest CIA-backed Kurdish forces in western Iran are escalating. And on the civilian side, Trump admits there was no evacuation plan for Americans in the region because it “happened all very quickly,” even though US military personnel were moved out earlier; the US has now closed embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Lebanon, and gas prices are spiking sharply.