President Donald Trump rejected claims that the United States is facing a shortage of munitions amid tensions with Iran, telling the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the U.S. military has “far more munitions than anyone in the world, and far more than we need.” His remarks came as the administration continued to balance diplomatic efforts with the prospect of renewed military escalation.
Trump was responding to reports from the New York Times and other news organizations that shrinking supplies of Patriot and other air defense interceptors had become part of internal discussions over whether to broaden the U.S. military campaign against Iran. At the same time, administration officials have said diplomatic work is still underway to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz echoed Trump’s position during appearances on NBC’s Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday. Waltz said “the U.S. military, and I’ve verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” while adding that Trump is “keeping all options on the table” and allowing negotiations “some space” to proceed.
“I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail,” Waltz said on Meet the Press. He did acknowledge that years of U.S. military aid to Ukraine and operations targeting the Houthis had put pressure on some stockpiles before Trump returned to office, but said the administration is working to rebuild inventories while moving toward newer, cheaper munitions and emerging defense technologies.
On Fox News, Waltz defended the administration’s military strategy, saying the campaign has been aimed at weakening Iran’s capacity to threaten commercial shipping and regional security. He argued that “the Iranian regime is isolated, economically devastated, militarily devastated,” and said Tehran was beginning to face financial strain, including difficulties paying government employees and military personnel.
The administration’s pushback on questions about U.S. readiness follows reports that Trump delayed a planned expansion of the air campaign after a Friday meeting with senior advisers. The decision came amid ongoing debate inside the administration over the costs and dangers of widening the conflict while diplomatic channels remained active.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that U.S. military planners had developed an expanded campaign that could have continued for as long as two weeks before Trump chose to give diplomacy more time. According to the report, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine briefed senior officials on declining stocks of Patriot and other air defense interceptors, concluding that the reduced inventories would raise operational risk but would not stop the military from carrying out new operations if Trump ordered them.
Axios separately reported Sunday that U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper recommended wrapping up the current bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz unless Washington planned to shift into a wider military operation. Cooper reportedly concluded that the campaign had largely met its goals and that most of the assigned targets tied to those strikes had already been used up.
Axios also reported that Cooper believed any renewed large-scale campaign could focus on the remaining designated military targets not struck during the U.S.-Israeli operation, while Trump’s Middle East envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, continued direct and indirect negotiations with Iranian officials through regional mediators. The report added that the sides had reached an informal “quiet for quiet” understanding under which neither side would launch new attacks so long as the current lull holds, while Oman continued efforts to broker an agreement concerning the Strait of Hormuz, though there was no guarantee Trump would ultimately accept such an arrangement.
Trump has continued signaling that diplomacy remains his preferred outcome while refusing to rule out renewed military action. Before Friday’s White House meeting, he told reporters, “Look, we’re locked and loaded. We’re ready to go, but we’re talking to them, so maybe there will be, maybe there won’t be a tipping point.”
In a separate interview with Axios last week, Trump said he was considering “a massive attack” against Iran that would be “bigger than ever before,” while adding that the military was prepared if diplomacy failed. In a phone interview Saturday with a reporter from French outlet LCI, Trump also said he would resume full-scale military operations “if we don’t get 100% of what we want, absolutely.”
Trump continued projecting military pressure Sunday by sharing a series of AI-generated images on Truth Social depicting strikes against Iranian energy and maritime targets, including one captioned “STRIKE ON KHARG,” an apparent reference to Iran’s principal oil export terminal on Kharg Island, along with several other posts emphasizing continued pressure on Tehran even as negotiations remain underway.
