On August 4, 2026, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with internal military data, that the five-month war with Iran had expended “virtually all” of the Army's ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles; CBS News reported the same from two sources. A late-July Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimate put U.S. Patriot interceptors at 759 to 827, down from about 2,330 before the war, and THAAD interceptors at 234 to 278, down from 452. Early on August 6, Trump denied any shortage on Truth Social and threatened the people who described it: “The 'leakers' of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!”
The threat is Trump's own words. A separate thread is less certain. The Washington Post reported on August 5, citing two people familiar with the exchange who spoke anonymously, that Trump had confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting at Camp David the previous Friday over munitions shortages he thought “had been fixed,” and that Hegseth blamed Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg for the shortfall and for not keeping the president fully informed. The White House and Pentagon denied that account.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X, “This literally never happened, and we told the Washington Post that repeatedly”; The Independent reported the White House called the story “100 percent fake news.” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called it “Complete & total Fake News.” Later on August 6, Trump said he was “extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing” and wrote of the Post, “I really believe their fake 'reporting' is treasonous!” According to TIME, Hegseth had announced a joint Pentagon-Justice Department task force in July to identify and prosecute people who leak to news organizations. What is not in dispute is the president's public vow to seek prison for the sources of national-security reporting he dislikes (see Trump Launches a War With Iran Without Congressional Approval, Killing the Supreme Leader, Bombing a School Full of Children, and Triggering a Regional War, Pentagon Watchdog Finds the Iran War Left 'Strategic Inventory Shortfalls' in Munitions as Trump Boasts of Record Weapons Production).
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry said CSIS estimated roughly 80 percent of THAAD interceptors had been depleted; the CSIS estimate cited by CBS, TIME and the New York Post is a drop from 452 to 234-278, slightly under half. It attributed the “100 percent fake news” phrase to Leavitt; The Independent attributes it to the White House, and Leavitt's own words were “This literally never happened.” It called the conflict a six-month war; it was about five months old. The text has been corrected.