The Trump administration’s narrative on the Iran War is changing by the day.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was caught in his own lie by CBS News’s Margaret Brennan, who reminded him Sunday that America’s depleted missile stockpile was not a media fabrication but actually a material reality that he testified to before Congress.“Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy was on this program a few weeks ago,” Brennan said. “He made a plea, not just for more interceptors, but for the ability to produce them, for friendly governments to be able to produce Patriots. Some Republican lawmakers support this idea. Do you?”“Nobody makes better and more munitions than the United States of America, and we are open to co-production wherever we can,” Hegseth said.“And because of this administration, we’re supercharging our arsenal of freedom, building more, building faster, opening up the Pentagon, ripping through the Pentagon bureaucracy to force industry to move faster so—” the secretary added before Brennan interjected.“But there is a crisis with those stockpiles right now?” pressed Brennan. “There is a crisis with those stockpiles right now in private industry. You have testified to it in front of Congress.”“No there’s not,” Hegseth replied. “That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle. And ultimately, we are our stockpiles are great, and they’ll only get stronger,” he continued, before Brennan pressed again that Hegseth had testified under oath that it would take years to rebuild U.S. munitions stockpiles.“You don’t have to read back to me what I testified, I speculated some munitions take more time than others,” Hegseth said. “We’ve got lots of them, we’re building more than ever before. The Biden administration gave away hundreds of billions to Ukraine, and so President Trump had to refill, and he has, and we have in real time.”“So, the answer to Zelenskiy’s request is a no or a yes?” asked Brennan regarding Ukraine’s ability to produce Patriot systems.But Hegseth dodged the question.“Ultimately, we’ve worked with them, and Ukraine is buying munitions that Europe pays for, and it’s great to see Europe finally step up and pay for those,” he responded.BRENNAN: But there is a crisis with those weapons stockpiles right nowHEGSETH: No there is not. That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddleBRENNAN: You have testified to it in front of CongressHEGSETH: You don't have to read back to me what I testified pic.twitter.com/sxqM9l4Lca— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2026Mere days into the Iran War, Hegseth appeared before U.S. lawmakers alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine in a closed door meeting that reportedly discussed the rapid decline in America’s long-range precision-guided missile supplies.At the time, the two Defense officials relayed that the U.S. had used a considerable amount of its wildly expensive interceptor missiles to thwart Iran’s seemingly infinite supply of Shahed attack drones. By late April, the Pentagon had used at least 45 percent of its Precision Strike Missile stockpile, at least half of its THAAD missiles, and nearly 50 percent of its Patriot air defense interceptor missiles, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.The White House has, nonetheless, invariably insisted that American munitions are well-stocked.
