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CBO Puts Trump’s "Golden Fleet" of Trump-Class Battleships at $275 Billion — $23.4 Billion for the First Ship Alone — and the Senate’s Top Budget Democrat Says Congress Should Refuse to Fund It

On August 5, 2026, the Congressional Budget Office released an estimate, requested by Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley, of what President Trump's proposed new class of nuclear-powered battleships would cost. CBO put the 15-ship program at about $275 billion through 2056: roughly $23.4 billion for the lead ship, the future USS Defiant, and about $18 billion each for the 14 that would follow. If the design grows to 41,000 tons, CBO put the worst case at $528 billion. The Senate Budget Committee separately estimated that the 20-to-25-ship fleet Trump has described would run about $455 billion. Trump announced the "Golden Fleet" at Mar-a-Lago on December 22, 2025, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan, describing a battleship armed with hypersonic missiles, nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles, an electromagnetic railgun and high-powered lasers — several of which remain undeveloped. It would be the largest U.S. surface combatant since World War II. CBO cautioned that its numbers are "highly uncertain," resting on assessments of a design that does not yet exist, and questioned whether American shipyards have the capacity to build nuclear-powered vessels of this size at all. The Navy has asked for roughly $1 billion in advance procurement and about $837 million in research and development in fiscal 2027, with a planned $17 billion request for the first ship's procurement in fiscal 2028 — which is where the fight over whether the fleet gets built will land.

“While American families can’t even keep their heads above water, Donald Trump is spending his time building himself a “Golden Fleet” of battleships the Navy doesn’t want.”

The Pentagon Publishes the Clinical Rules for Hegseth's Mandatory Testosterone Testing — and Pulls Them Down the Next Day — Seven Weeks After a Senator Who Lost Both Legs in Iraq Said the Program Sounded "Like Gender-Affirming Care to Me"

On September 2, 2026 the Pentagon posted a draft "Clinical Guidance for Health and Human Performance Optimization" implementing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July order that every active-duty and reserve service member aged 30 and older be screened annually for testosterone deficiency, with separate screening pathways written for men and women. On September 3 the document and the accompanying statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell were removed from the website. A U.S. official said the draft "has been temporarily rescinded to allow for updates," and that interim guidance remains in force — so the mandate itself stands while the clinical rules for carrying it out are rewritten. Hegseth announced the program on July 15, 2026, framing it as restoring rather than enhancing capability and calling it necessary for troops to operate at their "absolute best." Screening is mandatory at 30 and up and voluntary below it, with testosterone replacement therapy available to those who test low. No other military requires the screening absent a specific medical indication, and four of six physicians surveyed by Military Times said there was no solid evidence that universal screening at 30 would improve readiness. The Democratic reaction has run along two lines. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both legs in Iraq, and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, both pointed out that a government-funded hormone program for men sits awkwardly beside the same administration's ban on hormone therapy for transgender troops, and both asked why the screening does not extend to women in uniform given elevated infertility rates in the force. Houlahan called it the department's "latest culture-war obsession"; Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy combat pilot, called the change simply "weird."

A UN Fact-Finding Mission Says There Are "Reasonable Grounds" to Believe the United States Committed War Crimes in Iran — Including the Strike on a Girls' Elementary School in Minab That Killed About 120 Children — Six Months After Trump Said "That Was Done by Iran" and the Pentagon's Own Investigation Stayed Secret

On September 17, 2026, the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, reported that it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes during the opening of the February 2026 war — a pair of attacks the mission says killed at least 178 civilians. The central finding concerns the February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in the southern city of Minab, where Iranian officials say about 120 schoolchildren, most of them girls between 7 and 12, were among roughly 168 to 175 people killed. The mission concluded the strike was an indiscriminate attack causing loss of civilian life, amounting to a war crime under international law. The same report accuses Iran's government of crimes against humanity in its crackdown on anti-government protesters. The finding lands on a question US officials have refused to answer for six months. On March 7, aboard Air Force One, President Trump blamed Iran for the school bombing without evidence — "No, in my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran" — while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing nearby, declined to echo him, saying only "We're certainly investigating." Open-source analysts identified a US Tomahawk cruise missile in footage of the strike; the US is the only combatant in the war that fields Tomahawks. A preliminary US assessment reportedly found the United States "likely" responsible but not deliberately targeting the school. Congress has pressed for the Pentagon's findings all year without success. In March, Tim Kaine led more than 40 senators demanding a "swift investigation"; in July, Kirsten Gillibrand led 24 colleagues demanding the Department release the investigation it reportedly completed in April. As of the report's publication, the White House, State Department and Pentagon had not responded to requests for comment, and the Pentagon investigation remains unreleased. Stances below are relative to the finding of US responsibility and the demand for public accountability: "support" marks officials pressing for the investigation and its release, "oppose" marks officials attributing the strike elsewhere or resisting the accounting.

Hegseth Grilled by Congress on Iran War Costs; Pentagon Reveals $25 Billion Price Tag

On April 29-30, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced congressional testimony for the first time since the US went to war with Iran in late February. The hearings — first before the House Armed Services Committee, then before the Senate Armed Services Committee — were contentious, with Democrats attacking the war's legality, strategy, and cost. The Pentagon disclosed for the first time that the Iran war has cost approximately $25 billion to date. Democrats argued the figure dramatically understates the true cost, which they said includes surging oil prices, increased consumer goods prices, and long-term strategic damage. Hegseth defended the operation as necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and attacked critics as defeatist. The hearings came on the same day the 60-day War Powers Resolution deadline arrived, with the Trump administration separately claiming the ceasefire had "terminated" hostilities and thus the legal clock. Several Republican senators said they still expect a war authorization vote, while Democrats called for an immediate end to the conflict.

“$25 billion is probably less than half, maybe less than a quarter of the total cost of this war. And there's no pause button in the Constitution or the War Powers Act.”

The Pentagon vs. the Press

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's escalating crackdown on Pentagon press access — from requiring reporters to sign restrictive pledges in 2025, to closing the Correspondents' Corridor and mandating escorts in 2026 — has drawn a federal court ruling that the policy is unconstitutional. Over 30 major outlets forfeited their press credentials rather than comply. The New York Times sued in December 2025, and on March 20, 2026, Judge Paul Friedman ruled the policy violated the First and Fifth Amendments. The Pentagon then tried to reimpose restrictions under new rules; on April 9, 2026, the judge ruled the Pentagon was violating his court order.

“Hegseth should be fired. He endangered our pilots, he's killing survivors at sea, and now his department is defying a federal court order to let the press do its job. The American people have a right to know what the Pentagon is doing, especially during a war.”