President Donald Trump’s surprise war on Iran cost the United States over $11.3 billion dollars in its first week.
The Pentagon briefed Congress about the estimated cost of “Operation Epic Fury” earlier this week, according to the Associated Press.
The estimated cost is more than the entire population of America, over 342 million people, paying $32 each.
In just the first weekend of the war, the Pentagon told Congress that it had spent $5.6 billion on advanced munitions—including Tomahawk cruise missiles—alone.
An American Tomahawk missile was behind the bombing of an Iranian elementary school on the first day of the war, according to preliminary findings from a military investigation into the matter.
The strike, which killed more than 175 people, many of whom were children, was the result of a targeting error by the U.S. military, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Trump, 79, said on Monday that “whatever the report shows, I’m okay with that,” after claiming that Iran had access to Tomahawks and fired on their own school.
Domestic gas prices across the nation have also skyrocketed in response to the global conflict, as the crucial Strait of Hormuz has diminished commercial shipping since Iran closed off the passageway on March 2. The number of ships traveling through the vital shipping lane has gone from its daily average of 60 down to 12, according to hormuzstraitmonitor.com.
Trump, 79, has downplayed the economic impact of the conflict, telling Americans, who largely don’t support U.S. attacks on the Middle Eastern country, that the rising costs are a “small price to pay.”
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”
Trump’s Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, shared in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. will release 172 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Reserve, starting next week.
“For 47 years, Iran and its terrorist proxies have been intent on killing Americans,” Wright said in the statement. “They have manipulated and threatened the energy security of America and its allies. Under President Trump, those days are coming to an end.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the U.S. and Israeli joint aerial bombing campaign, along with several top officials, including the Minister of Defense and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Al Jazeera reports that over 1,200 people have died and over 12,000 have been injured in Iran since the fighting began on Feb. 28.
Eight American service members have died since the conflict began, six of whom were killed by an Iranian retaliatory drone strike on a mobile operations center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. The Pentagon also confirmed on Wednesday that 140 American military personnel have been injured.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
