Amid reports that the U.S. is running dangerously low on stocks of missile defense interceptors and precision munitions due mostly to the Iran war, President Trump should cut his losses in the Iran war and step up support to Ukraine, some former American officials and foreign policy experts said today.
“We blew all our air defense in a stupid war that we lost,” former Republican congressman and U.S. Air National Guard Lt. Colonel Adam Kinzinger wrote on Twitter today. “Meanwhile, Ukraine is fighting its ass off and now empty.”
“Send the remaining Patriots to Ukraine now and ramp up production,” Kinzinger urged.
“President Trump is not going to call me into the Oval Office, but if he did, I would say, ‘go for the win,’ man,” by boosting U.S. support to Ukraine, veteran former U.S. diplomat Daniel Fried told me. “Don’t play a loser’s game in Iran. Go for the win.”
“People in the administration occasionally say you have to be realistic,” Fried, a former US Ambassador to Poland now with the Atlantic Council, said. “Realism suggests you don’t double down on a bad war. You double down on one with a more reasonable prospect of success.”
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) issued a report last week that estimated that the United States had only about 760-820 Patriot interceptors left at the end of July, compared with over 2,300 before Trump launched the Iran war with Israel on February 28. It also said the U.S. had about 230-278 THAAD interceptors remaining at the end of July, compared with about 450 pre-war.
“Ukraine will not be able to expect many interceptors—or any interceptors – from the United States for quite a while,” CSIS’s Mark Cancian, co-author of the report, told RFERL’s Alex Raufoglu and Zoriana Stepanenko.
Trump reportedly erupted at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting at Camp David last Friday, claiming to have been misled on the munitions shortages, the Washington Post reported last night:
The shortages, particularly in long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptors, have been part of the reason Trump has pulled back from launching additional massive strikes against Iran in recent days, one of the sources said. …
Back at Camp David, as he was confronted by Trump over the bare weapons stockpile, Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue, both people familiar said.
Trump today acknowledged some munitions are running low, while insisting the U.S. had a large supply of older ammunition and weapons. He also blamed shortages on what the Biden administration gave to Ukraine after Russia launched a full-fledged invasion in 2022.
“We have certain type of munitions that we have a … virtually unlimited supply,” he told reporters in the Oval Office today. “We have others where it’s a little bit tighter.”
“We’re using munitions that are very powerful, very good, …but these are a little bit older type, equally as effective,” he said. “Plus, we have supplies of munitions all over the world that if we ever needed them, we’d take that.”
“Look, we gave a tremendous amount to Ukraine,” he said. “The Biden people did, and they were given free of charge. ….
Asked about Ukraine desperately seeking Patriot interceptors to help defend the capital Kyiv from recent nightly Russian ballistic missile barrages, Trump said the United States wants the missile defenses Ukraine is seeking too.
“We want missiles too,” Trump said. “Biden gave him so much.”
If Trump would shift to increase support to Ukraine so that Russia is forced to seek an end to the war, it would be a strategic success for Ukraine, the West and the United States, and help redeem the damage done to the U.S. reputation after the failed Iran war, Fried argued.
“If Ukraine succeeds, all of America’s foreign policy problems get better,” Fried said. “If the Chinese see that we got it together and ended up helping Ukraine and Putin is defeated, that’s a lesson. Like we stumble, but we got there.”
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