Military Is About to Run Out of Ammunition Thanks to Trump’s Iran War

The U.S. has significantly depleted its missile reserve during its war with Iran, sparking concerns that the military could be caught empty-handed if another conflict arises in the next few years.

The Pentagon has used at least 45 percent of its Precision Strike Missile stockpile, at least half of its THAAD missiles, and nearly 50 percent of its Patriot air defense interceptor missiles, according to a report published Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The number of missiles that remain are expected to be enough to continue the war in Iran, even if peace negotiations fall apart, but they are too diminished to thwart another major world power, such as China.

“The high munitions expenditures have created a window of increased vulnerability in the western Pacific,” Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel and a CSIS report author, told CNN. “It will take one to four years to replenish these inventories and several years after that to expand them to where they need to be.”

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told CNN that the military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

“Since President Trump took office, we have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” Parnell said.

The war with Iran is currently in its seventh week, but Defense Department officials first raised concerns about America’s missile supply more than a month ago. In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on March 3, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine reportedly said that Iran’s Shahed attack drones had proved a more difficult problem than initially predicted. One source told CNN in early March that the U.S. has been “burning” through long-range precision-guided missiles in order to fend off the drones.

Shortly afterward, European Union defense officials warned that the U.S. would no longer be capable of supplying missiles to its allies amid the war with Iran, stressing that the continent would need to develop its own missile manufacturing sector in order to adequately fill its supply without Washington’s help.

But the reality has not aligned with the White House’s rhetoric. Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited” supply of missiles, capable of attacking Iran “forever.” Nonetheless, his administration has placed orders with private contractors in order to replenish America’s stockpiles, though some weapons reserves are expected to take years before they return to prewar levels.

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego should be commended for some excellent fact-checking of Trump crony Kevin Warsh on Tuesday.

Warsh is Trump’s pick to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve after Jerome Powell’s term expires in May. During Warsh’s Senate committee confirmation hearing, Gallego tried to suss out whether Warsh was going to put the president’s political interests ahead of the country’s economic health.

“Earlier today, you said to Senator [John] Kennedy that President Trump never demanded you to cut interest rates in your job interview. Is that your sworn testimony?” Gallego asked.

“That is, Senator,” Warsh said.

“Well, someone here is lying, then,” Gallego replied. “It’s either you or President Trump. Because in an interview with The Wall Street Journal of December 12, President Trump confirmed he pressed you on your commitment to support interest rate cuts.”

Gallego helpfully cited the Journal article for Warsh: “During a 45-minute meeting … the president pressed Warsh on whether he could trust him to support interest-rate cuts if he were chosen to lead the central bank, according to people familiar with the meeting. Trump, in the Journal interview, confirmed that reporting.”

Warsh responded by claiming the reporters who wrote the story—Meridith McGraw, Nick Timiraos, and Brian Schwartz—were fibbing:

“Senator, there’s, of course, a third alternative. You cite a couple of reporters for a leading financial newspaper.… I think those reporters either need better sources, or better journalistic standards.”

Of course, the cited “source” here is Trump himself, which Gallego pointed out, asking if that meant Warsh thought Trump was lying. Warsh began to reply before Gallego unfortunately cut him off and moved on. Gallego did ask Warsh what he would say if the Journal verified all of its reporting, to which Warsh repeated the same unsatisfying point about journalists needing better sources and standards.

Warsh has previously worked on Wall Street, as an economic adviser in the George W. Bush administration, and as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. With a net worth in the hundreds of millions, he would be the richest Fed chair ever, which feels fitting for a presidency that seems to be about the rich laughing in the face of working Americans as much as possible.

Trump would love to see a Powell replacement as soon as possible. Trump appointed the mild-mannered, bespectacled Powell in 2017, but Powell has since drawn the president’s ire by being boringly responsible and refusing to cut interest rates. Trump has even weaponized the Department of Justice by subpoenaing Powell over a federal building renovation (a judge tossed the lawsuit out).

In the face of mounting pressure, Powell has not wavered. His quiet resistance to the president has made him something of a cult hero among Democrats, who have crafted a few social media fancams in his honor.

President Trump and his MAGA coalition are beginning to panic as the threat of a successful Democratic redistricting vote on Tuesday in Virginia looms over them.

“This is what they’re going to be doing.… If [the Democrats] get additional House seats, at some point, if they get these additional seats they’re gonna be making changes at the federal levels,” Trump warned on a tele-rally call with Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday.

The ballot measure to redraw the congressional map could give the Democrats a greater chance to regain control of the House of Representatives, giving them potentially four more seats. Under the new map, Virginia Democrats could hold every House seat except for one.

That would in turn have massive implications for the president’s agenda, which he—and the rest of his supporters—are very concerned about.

Fox News’s Brit Hume lamented the effort as one not to ensure fairness but to “ensure Democrats have many more seats than they do now.”

MAGA muse Steve Bannon shared an even bleaker diagnosis.

“This is their plan.... Not just, are they going to take power and use these four seats to impeach Trump? But they’re going to use this as a template for the rest of the country. It’s coming,” Bannon said on the Monday episode of his War Room podcast. “These Democrats are demonic.… If they weren’t demonic, wouldn’t they show you the map? Wouldn’t they walk you through the logic?”

Each of these comments ignores that these redistricting wars started with Texas Republicans doing the bidding of Trump last year.

Polls close Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from the House Tuesday.

The move came just hours before the House Ethics Committee was supposed to announce sanctions against the Florida congresswoman, who allegedly took $5 million in Covid relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and funneled it into her campaign. She also purchased luxury items for herself, including a diamond ring. The committee found her guilty of 25 ethics violations, and she faces 15 federal indictments.  

In a statement posted on X, Cherfilus-McCormick attacked the committee for refusing her “new attorney’s reasonable request for time to prepare my new defense,” saying the process was unfair. 

“By going forward with this process while a criminal indictment is pending, the Committee prevented me from defending myself. I will not stand by and pretend that this has been anything other than a witch hunt. I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished,” the statement said. 

Cherfilus-McCormick is the third member of Congress to resign in the last week, following fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell for numerous sexual misconduct allegations and Republican Tony Gonzales for explicit text messages sent to two former employees, one with whom he engaged in an affair who later committed suicide. 

Cherfilus-McCormick had sought a pardon from President Trump, approaching him at a White House Christmas party in December. Republican Representatives Nancy Mace and Greg Steube had each pushed for her expulsion. Mace and Republican Cory Mills also face Ethics Committee investigations, but have resisted calls for them to resign. 

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump is still not happy that his tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court, and he said Tuesday that he would “remember” the companies that don’t seek refunds.

The president spoke to CNBC’s Squawk Box over the phone in a morning interview, and anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him about large companies, such as Apple and Amazon, that haven’t sought tariff reimbursements because they were worried about “offending” the president.

“Would you find it offensive for them to try to collect a refund?” Sorkin asked Trump.

“I think it’s brilliant if they don’t do that. I actually think if they don’t do that, they got to know me very well. I’m very honored by what you just said. If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them,” Trump said, before going off on a tangent about the Supreme Court and birthright citizenship.

Trump’s words could be considered as a threat to companies that do seek refunds for the tariffs they paid, as would be their right under the Supreme Court’s ruling. Trump has praised companies whose executives have cozied up to him or donated large amounts of money to one of his personal projects, and has attacked those that he sees as disloyal to him or his agenda.

The president is explicitly saying that if businesses don’t ask for the money that they are legally owed for the tariffs, they will be in his good graces and can expect positive treatment from the White House. That is highly unethical and, from any other president, would be met with a huge backlash from Congress and media commentators. But since Trump has basically normalized corruption, he’s not likely to face any consequences.