Pentagon chief cornered on 'theory' Trump is evading War Powers Act in 'testy' exchange

Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar (Cal.) clashed with Pentagon officials on Tuesday morning during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the president's 2027 budget and developments in the conflict with Iran.

Speaking with Secretary Pete Hegseth, Aguilar demanded details about the ceasefire. Hegseth refused to answer.

"How many pages is the ceasefire? How do we know the ceasefire is active or not active without any documentation?" the congressman asked.

"We know," Hegseth said. He then quickly added that it was "evident" the ceasefire was "in effect."

On Thursday last week, Iran launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats at the U.S. The U.S. then responded with what Trump referred to as "just a love tap," which were targeted strikes within Iran.

Those strikes prompted questions about whether the ceasefire was still in effect.

"So, we just trust the president that it's active or not active?" asked Aguilar.

"As you know, for the most part, a ceasefire means the fire is ceasing, and we know that has occurred while negotiations occur," replied Hegseth.

In an analysis, CNN correspondent Brian Todd called the back-and-forth "testy" and noted the ballooning costs of the Iran war.

"The controller, the acting controller of the Pentagon, Jay Hurst, just gave an updated figure of how much the war costs. He said it has cost about $29 billion so far. That is an updated figure from what he gave about a week and a half or so ago when he said it was $25 billion," said Todd.

Hurst told Aguilar that the costs have changed since the initial $25 billion request.

Sources have told CNN previously that it's a lowball figure and may not include the necessary construction costs from Iranian strikes of U.S. bases around the Middle East. That figure alone could be $25 to $50 billion and does not include the initial costs of the war.

Members of Congress demanded specifics on the budget as they're slated to go into markup of the additional costs by June 11. Both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have been asking for specifics from Hegseth on the budget for weeks. As of Tuesday's hearing, Hegseth still didn't have the line items.

Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) listed off the specifics she wanted from Hegseth in the budget, including cost adjustments for fuel, maintenance for the ships that have been deployed to the Strait of Hormuz for the past several months, the munitions costs, rebuilding the U.S. bases and several others.

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