The U.S. military is running low on money. The Pentagon is facing a budget shortfall tied to the escalating conflict in Iran, with some funding lines reportedly depleting within weeks.

President Trump’s decisions to escalate military operations have driven costs higher, and the existing defense budget wasn’t built to absorb a sustained armed conflict with one of the Middle East’s most heavily armed states.

A familiar problem with high stakes

This isn’t the first time Washington has found itself scrambling to fund an overseas military engagement. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan followed a similar pattern: initial authorization, ballooning costs, emergency supplemental spending bills, and heated congressional debates about who controls the nation’s war chest.

Congress holds the constitutional power of the purse, meaning the executive branch cannot simply conjure new war funding without legislative approval.