Iran threats and snipers in Washington: Trump’s dangerous unravelling

Depleted missiles abroad and armed fortresses at home reveal a president running out of options as midterms loom

While Donald Trump has long dismissed any bad news about his war on Iran as lies dreamed up by a woke media, this faces a persistent problem: the checks and balances built into the US system cannot be so easily dismissed.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), for example, reports not to the White House but directly to Congress. To make matters even less palatable, when it comes to military issues, media outlets are apt to report major CBO reports at length.  

A recent example was the Military Times’ detailed coverage of the CBO’s report on the cost of US combat operations in Iran up to mid-September – $38bn – and the vexed issue of the US’s huge usage of specialist munitions, especially ballistic missile interceptors, which can be far more expensive than the missiles they are designed to destroy. Helpfully – unless you’re in the White House – the publication also directly linked readers to the CBO report itself.

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As the Military Times summarised: “CBO estimates the conflict has consumed between one-half and two-thirds of the US inventory of certain missile-defence interceptors since June 2025, leaving the military with fewer weapons available for a future conflict. Rebuilding those stocks could take at least five years, even if production rates increase, the agency found.”

One implication is that any talk by Trump or his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, of a potential further bombing assault on Iran is hardly plausible, as Iran would simply expand its targeting of US military and communications facilities across the region. This would further deplete the Pentagon’s limited stocks of defensive missiles, leaving US and allied states across the Middle East at risk.

It is yet another indication that Trump is in a mess over Iran and has no easy way out unless he is prepared to accept a deal with Tehran that amounts to acknowledging failure. Such a deal may now be on offer from Iran, but Trump is unlikely to accept it, with the extent of his anger and frustration clearly visible in his address to the UN General Assembly this week.