Is it true that the United States has run out of weapons under Trump?

When President Donald Trump took the stage at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit earlier this month, he was flanked by the CEOs of some of America’s biggest defense firms with one message: Build more weapons, and build them fast.

“We have the best quality in the world,” Trump told arms dealers gathered at the US War College, flanked by “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth. “But we need a little more speed.”

The Trump administration has framed the summit as a two-pronged approach to revitalizing American industry and bolstering America’s warfighting capabilities and, as Heggs calls it, an “arsenal of freedom.”

Largely understated, however, was the high cost of the sophisticated and difficult-to-manufacture weapons used in Operation Epic Fury, the nearly 40-day high-stakes campaign in Iran earlier this year and the tit-for-tat attacks that have followed since. The US government says the war has cost $37.5 billion (£28bn) so far, most of which is spent on guns.

U.S. forces have struck more than 13,000 targets across Iran since a tough ceasefire took effect on April 8, according to the White House. US air defenses intercepted more than 1,700 Iranian drones and ballistic missiles at the same time.

The United States has now suspended its attacks on Iran to allow negotiations to take place. According to a New York Times report, Trump has been advised to halt plans to escalate the conflict as it further depletes US reserves.

On Monday, Trump told The Wall Street Journal that there was no shortage: “We have more ammunition than anyone else in the world, and more than we need.”