Democrat criticizes Trump for how expensive he is
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Wednesday condemned President Donald Trump and his administration for plunging the United States into a costly “war of choice” in Iran rather than using the billions of taxpayer dollars that fund it on federal food and health care programs.
“This war costs a billion dollars a day,” Schatz wrote Wednesday in X.
The Democratic lawmaker continued: “In one fucking month we will spend more there than we needed to save healthcare for over 2 million Americans. They are literally taking away your food and healthcare for this regime change election war.”
The regional war has already killed six American service members and at least 1,000 people in Tehran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Airstrikes on a girls’ school on Saturday killed at least 175 people, most of them children under 12 years old.
As Schatz noted, Trump has found billions of taxpayer dollars to put toward the war in Iran, but he has made no attempt to secure additional funding for Medicaid recipients or the 42 million Americans who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The “big, beautiful bill” the president signed last year includes cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that could affect millions of people.
Jacquelyn Martín)News
Trump previously denounced America’s costly “forever wars” and said trillions of taxpayer dollars should be spent on American infrastructure.
Critics on social media have called Schatz a hypocrite for pointing out the costs of war with Iran after consistently voting in favor of sending expensive aid packages to Ukraine, omitting key facts: Russia invaded Ukraine and Iran was in negotiations with the United States before the attacks.
The Trump administration has offered a wide range of reasons for war with Iran, including some that openly contradict each other. Trump declared during a video speech Saturday after announcing the start of major combat operations that the country “can never have a nuclear weapon,” despite confirming that just last year U.S.-led strikes had “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the United States “preemptively” bombed Iran because the administration “knew” that imminent Israeli strikes there would trigger “an attack on American forces.” Rubio retracted the statement Tuesday.
The president said Monday that combat operations will likely last several weeks, but later wrote on social media: “Wars can be fought ‘forever’ and very successfully.”