Vice President JD Vance disputed - before seemingly confirming - reports that he’s concerned about the Pentagon’s upbeat assessment of the Iran war and worried about how the conflict is burning through large amounts of the U.S. weapons supply.
On Monday, The Atlantic reported that Vance has inquired about whether the Defense Department’s often triumphant description of the war is accurate. The magazine, citing two senior administration officials, also reported that the vice president has asked whether military officials are understating what appears to be a “drastic” depletion of U.S. munitions stores as the conflict continues.
Speaking to Fox News about the report on Wednesday, Vance issued something of a non-denial denial.
“Nobody who actually knows what I think, nobody who’s close to me, was speaking to that reporter,” Vance said. “Because if they did, then it would’ve been a totally different story.”
“Of course I’m concerned about our readiness, because that’s my job to be concerned,” the vice president then added. “But I think that Pete Hegseth, our Department of War secretary, I think General Caine, our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they’re doing an amazing job, but it’s of course my job to ask these questions. It’s of course my job to make sure that we’re on top of every issue.”
Estimates suggest the U.S. is rapidly drawing down its weapons supply.
The U.S. has fired at least 1,110 long-range stealth cruise missiles since February, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile, and it has fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the amount the military buys each year, according to a New York Times analysis.
As a result, the paper reported, the military has moved bombs, missiles, and other key gear from strategically important commands in Asia and Europe to support the Iranian campaign.
The president and top military officials have said the U.S. has largely devastated the Iranian military, while Trump has called stockpiles of important U.S. weapons “virtually unlimited.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that the U.S. is “fully loaded with more than enough weapons and munitions, in stockpiles here at home and all around the globe, to effectively defend the homeland and achieve any military operation directed by the commander in chief.”
The White House finds itself on the back foot at the moment when it comes to defending the war.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced a bruising congressional hearing in the House on Wednesday, where legislators questioned the overall U.S. strategy in the war and what comes next.
The secretary heads back to the Hill for testimony in the Senate on Thursday.
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