Here’s What Trump’s Iran War Money Could Fund Instead
The price tag from Trump’s war on Iran is enough to reconstruct Gaza, provide healthcare to millions in the US, or end homelessness here at home for years.
Donald Trump is burning through US taxpayer dollars to fund his illegal war abroad after he slashed funding for American public services in every zip code.
According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, Trump’s war on Iran will directly cost American taxpayers an estimated $65 billion – more if it continues for longer than two months – for military operations and replacement of equipment, munitions, and other supplies. The estimated economic loss on top of direct costs ranges from $50 billion to $210 billion, according to the budget model.
The first six days of the war alone already cost over $11 billion, Pentagon officials told Congress in a closed-door briefing Tuesday (though according to Senator Chris Coons, who sits on the appropriations and foreign relations committees, the full toll is even higher.) That’s about how much the federal government spent per week on Medicaid before Trump’s cuts to the program, which insures low-income and disabled Americans.
And the White House is reportedly expected to request $50 billion in supplemental funding to bankroll the war, on top of the Pentagon’s $1.4 trillion budget.
Yet pundits and politicians in Washington who often gripe about the price tag of public service projects have little to say about the costs of Trump’s illegal war in Iran.
Here’s how the federal government could spend $65 billion instead of to bomb Iran:
Ending Homelessness
The Iran war chest could end homelessness in the US for two to six years, according to Scioto Analysis, a public policy analysis firm, which estimates an annual cost of $11-$30 billion.
Homelessness affected 771,480 Americans in 2024, up 18% from the previous year, according to federal data. The National Alliance to End Homelessness says the surge is driven by the affordability crisis – which Trump in December called a Democratic “hoax” after he ran on lowering prices in 2024.
Healthcare for Millions
The expanded Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that Republicans allowed to expire could be funded for nearly two years, based on the estimated cost of $350 billion to extend them for a decade.
The subsidy lapse is affecting over 20 million Americans, according to KFF. And a Penn-Yale report estimated the cut to subsidies will result in an additional, and preventable, 8,811 deaths per year.
Improving Education
The Iran war budget would be enough to modernize all US public libraries and cover a decade of teachers’ out-of-pocket classroom expenses. A 2021 American Library Association report estimated that renovation and construction would cost $32 billion, and they forecasted it would take 25 years to raise that amount.
Funding Mamdani’s Promises
Up to two months of war in Iran could fund nearly a decade of free child care, free buses, and five city-run grocery stores for New York City’s roughly 8.5 million residents, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s yearly estimates announced during his campaign.
Global Humanitarian Aid
On the global stage, $65 billion could fund roughly two years of the United Nations’s entire humanitarian aid plan.
The UN said its 2026 appeal would provide aid to 135 million people for $33 billion. Less than a third of the projected Iran war cost could fund the immediate priorities and save 87 million lives, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Trump’s cuts last year to global humanitarian funding have already endangered lifesaving efforts. A study published in The Lancet estimated that the US Agency for International Development had saved more than 91 million lives over the past two decades, before Trump shut it down. Researchers estimated that if the funding cuts continue through 2030, 14 million people could suffer preventable deaths.
Reconstructing Gaza
The $65 billion price tag for Trump’s war in Iran would cover 92% of the estimated cost to reconstruct Gaza, after Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decimated the occupied territory with US-funded bombs.
Instead, Trump dragged the US to war in partnership with Israel and the same wanted war criminal.
The vast $65 billion Iran war chest is still just one part of the equation. The Biden and Trump administrations collectively handed Israel $21.7 billion in military aid just in the first two years of its ongoing genocide in Gaza. US attacks in support of Israel across the Middle East have cost an additional $9.7 billion to $12 billion.
Of course, greater than any price tag is the human toll. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign. Iran’s retaliatory attacks have killed at least 11 US troops, 15 Israelis, and dozens more in the region, according to government reports.
Among the victims in Iran are 168 children who were killed soon after the war began on Feb. 28 in a bombing on Minab elementary school, which human rights groups condemned as a violation of humanitarian law. Neither the US nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack on the girls’ school, which marks the deadliest assault in the war so far. But the New York Times reports that an ongoing military probe has determined the US is likely to blame.
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Trump’s a malignant narcissist and convicted sexual abuser operating textbook authoritarian confusion—Stalin and Mussolini playbook. He’s a disease that cancer wouldn’t even get its hands dirty with. Flood the zone with contradictory narratives so no single story can be challenged, no accountability can stick.
The constant lying isn’t incompetence, it’s operational doctrine. When the stated reason for war changes daily (unconditional surrender → regime change → nuclear sites → actually we won → need to keep fighting), you can’t pin down which claim failed. Creates chaos that prevents coherent opposition while demonstrating unconstrained power: “I can say anything, change it tomorrow, and you can’t stop me.”
The inconsistency IS the point. Authority that doesn’t need to justify itself, just perform dominance.
Thank you for the article. I know that Trump’s War is costing the U.S. taxpayers billions each day while right wing media collects a check and sits on their Fannie’s. Let’s see if drafting them would help. Accept , my war when I was growing up the poll numbers were higher than ever during Vietnam. My doctors told me I took the place of a medic. Yes Linda you have temporal lobe epilepsy, and definitely pins in to your neck, and Harrington rods in your spine., and a broken left leg. My memory of five years is gone. I took the place of a medic during the Beriut bombing they have told me. I still can’t remember. The memory is gone forever not on purpose, but I have moved on . I appreciate the interview with the Former Marine Corps enlisted who got his hand broken while the Senator broke his hand. Well I only hope when government officials act like that , consequences, happen to the party who did this awful thing. My beloved Mother who raised me had a melt down and my father was strong to help her out the love he had, for her. They had a marriage of 60 years. The cost is much for me when I saw those soldiers being brought home in caskets . We all are witness of those moments in our time and history. Now I surgery on my thoracic spine. I am hopeful this too shall pass! Please subscribe to ZETEO.