U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the American military was facing a munitions stockpile shortage, saying on Sunday (June 14, 2026) that it was a “manufactured story” peddled by the media.

Mr. Hegseth’s comments came hours before the United States and Iran said they reached a deal to end the Middle East war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Concerns over the West Asia war straining U.S. weapons stockpiles deepened last month after Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao cited the conflict as a reason for pausing arms sales to Taiwan.

Hegseth dismissed the idea when asked on CBS News’ Face the Nation if there was a crisis in munitions stockpiles.

“That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle, and ultimately our stockpiles are great and they’re only getting stronger,” he said.

“We’re building more than ever before. The Biden administration gave away hundreds of billions to Ukraine, and so President Trump had to refill, and he has, and we have, in real time.”

At an April congressional hearing, Mr. Hegseth testified that it could take “months and years” to replenish the stockpile, describing it as a “fast” time frame.

Mr. Hegseth said on Sunday (June 14, 2026) that, in his testimony, he “speculated some munitions take more time than others” to refill.

The Pentagon said last month that the cost of the war with Iran had climbed to nearly $29 billion.

Democrats and other critics of the war have questioned the Pentagon’s calculations, suggesting the true cost including damage inflicted by Iran — could be far higher.

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly warned at the time that inventories of Tomahawk missiles, Patriot interceptors and other advanced weapons had been severely drawn down and could take years to replenish.

Mr. Hegseth responded that the concerns were “foolishly and unhelpfully overstated.”

In another of a series of moves restricting media access at the Pentagon, the Defence Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists.

On X, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, saying there was “nothing controversial” about it and that it came because speechwriters, who use classified material, were now occupying the space.

“The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility,” Mr. Valdez wrote.

“These speechwriters routinely handle classified material … as a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There’s nothing controversial about that.”

The latest move, first reported by The Washington Post, took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S. media and the second Trump administration, which has played out both in the public arena and at times in the courts.

For many years, Pentagon reporters had credentials granting them wide movement in the building as they sought to interact with press officials there. But last October, most news outlets turned in access badges and walked out of the Pentagon rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work.

The New York Times sued the Defence Department on May 18 for the second time in five months, arguing that a requirement that journalists be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violates the First Amendment and is “an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon to prevent independent reporting on military affairs.”

The paper said it had filed the additional lawsuit after first suing the Pentagon in December over new rules imposed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, to challenge an interim policy “that the Pentagon hastily put into place after a federal judge ruled in The Times’s favor in its original lawsuit.” The new policy included the requirement that journalists be accompanied by escorts at all times while in the Pentagon.

The policy was implemented in March following a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman that had struck down earlier restrictions. The following month, the judge ruled that the interim policy violated his March order. But the escort policy remained in place when an appeals court stayed part of Friedman’s ruling while the government appeals. The appeals process is ongoing.

Skeptical Democrats confronted Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday (April 29, 2026) for the first time since the Trump administration went to war with Iran, touching off tense exchanges over a costly conflict with unclear objectives that has been waged without congressional approval.

The hearing before the House Armed Services Committee was focused on the administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defence spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Mr. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, stressed the need for more drones, missile defence systems and warships.

U.S. forces in ‌West Asia are postured to ​restart combat operations ⁠if Iran doesn’t agree to a peace deal, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a ‌Pentagon briefing on Thursday (April 16, 2026).

“You Iran, can choose a ‌prosperous future, a golden ‌bridge, and ⁠we hope that you ⁠do for the people of Iran,” he said.

A Washington, D.C. federal appeals court on Wednesday (April 8, 2026) declined to block the Pentagon’s national security blacklisting of ​Anthropic for now, a win for the Trump administration that comes after another appeals ‌court came to the opposite conclusion in a separate legal challenge ​by Anthropic.

Anthropic, developer of the popular Claude AI ⁠assistant, alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated the company a national security supply-chain risk, a label that blocks Anthropic from Pentagon contracts ‌and could trigger a government-wide blacklisting. Anthropic executives have said the designation could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business ‌and reputational harm.

A panel of judges of the U.S. Court of ‌Appeals ⁠for the District of Columbia Circuit denied Anthropic’s bid to ⁠pause the designation while the case plays out. The decision is not a final ruling. The lawsuit is one of two Anthropic filed over Mr. Hegseth’s unprecedented move, which came after Anthropic ​refused to allow the military to ‌use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons due to safety and ethics concerns.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was the “first one” to suggest attacking Iran when he discussed the “problem in the Middle East” with his close aides.

Speaking at the Memphis Safe Task Force Roundtable in Tennessee, on Monday (March 23, 2026), Mr. Trump said he called all his aides, including Mr. Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen Dan Caine, to discuss the situation in Iran before making the decision. “I called Pete, I called General Caine. I called a lot of our great people… And I said, ‘Let’s talk. We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country, known as Iran, that for 47 years has been just a purveyor of terror, and they’re very close to having a nuclear weapon. We can keep going and get that 50,000 up to 55 and 60, there’s no end, or we can take a stop and make a little journey into the Middle East and eliminate a big problem,” Mr. Trump said.

Iran-Israel war updates on March 24, 2026

Mr. Trump, who is facing backlash in his country over the issue, praised Mr. Hegseth for his quick response on the issue. “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up and you said let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” he said. Earlier, Mr. Trump said on social media that he has extended the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically-located shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and that he will hold off strikes against Iranian energy sites for five days.

The U.S. President, without sharing any details, also said that there have been “productive conversations” between the U.S. and Iran for “complete and total resolution” to the conflict in West Asia. Iran has denied Mr. Trump’s claim, calling it “fake news.” “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” posted on social media.

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday (March 19, 2026) there is no “time frame” for ending the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which was launched three weeks ago.

Iran-Israel war LIVE

“We wouldn’t want to set a definitive time frame,” Mr. Hegseth told a news conference, adding that “we’re very much on track” and that President Donald Trump will be the one to decide when to stop.

“It will be at the president’s choosing, ultimately, where we say, ‘Hey, we’ve achieved what we need to.’”

Additional funds of $200 billion

Mr. Hegseth also addressed a report that the Pentagon has requested more than $200 billion in additional funding from Congress to pay for the conflict.

“As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move. Obviously it takes money to kill bad guys,” Mr. Hegseth said.

“We’re going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future,” he said.

Top U.S. military officer General Dan Caine, who spoke alongside Mr. Hegseth, provided details on weapons being used against Iran and its allied forces in the region.

Caine said A-10 Warthogs — a type of aircraft designed for providing close air support — are “hunting and killing fast-attack watercraft” in the key Strait of Hormuz waterway, which Iran effectively closed to maritime traffic following the start of the war.

He also said AH-64 Apaches are being used in Iraq to target Iran-aligned militia groups there, and that some U.S. allies have begun using the attack helicopters to counter one-way drones launched by Tehran’s forces.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen risked compromising sensitive information and could have put troops at risk, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog said on Thursday (December 4, 2025).

“The secretary sent nonpublic DoD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network,” the Inspector General’s office said in a report, using an abbreviation for the Department of Defence.

“Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives,” it said.

The U.S. military on Wednesday (October 29, 2025) struck another boat in the eastern Pacific, which was claimed to be trafficking drugs, killing four people, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said, bringing the death toll from Washington’s controversial anti-narcotics campaign to at least 62.

The strike occurred in international waters, Mr. Hegseth announced on X, and a video accompanying his post showed a boat floating stationary in the water before a large explosion and subsequent fire.

Like previous videos released by the U.S. government, areas on the boat are obfuscated, rendering it impossible to verify how many people were on board.

“This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Mr. Hegseth said.

Experts say the attacks, which began in early September, amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers, and Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the United States.

Wednesday’s (October 29, 2025) deadly attack comes two days after multiple strikes on four boats killed 14 people in the eastern Pacific and left one survivor.

The United States asked Mexico to attempt to rescue the survivor, but Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday (October 29, 2025) that search efforts had failed.

Earlier Wednesday (October 29, 2025), Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his country had intercepted three planes allegedly used for drug trafficking, as tensions mount over the US boat strikes and its military deployment in the region.

“The day before yesterday…a drug-trafficking plane entered through the Caribbean. Our aviation detected it in a second,” Mr. Maduro said at an official event.

“Today, two drug-trafficking aircraft entered from the north. And in accordance with our law, we have an interception law…bam, boom, bang!”

It was not immediately clear if this meant the planes were shot down.

Mr. Maduro said the action was taken “to make them respect Venezuela…what is that called? Exercising sovereignty.”

Caracas has sought to showcase anti-drug efforts in the face of a massive U.S. military deployment within striking distance of the country.

The United States has deployed seven U.S. Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes, and ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the region, bringing a massive increase in firepower.

Washington calls its deployment an anti-drug operation, but Caracas fears it is a guise for military action to oust Mr. Maduro.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration says Mr. Maduro is a drug lord, an accusation he denies, and has issued a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Mr. Maduro insists there is no drug cultivation in Venezuela, which he says is used as a trafficking route for Colombian cocaine against its will.