Really American | Thursday, March 12, 2026
A Republican senator tried to gaslight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate today. It didn’t work.
When Sen. Roger Wicker pressed her on whether she was really claiming that the United States had targeted a school, Gillibrand didn’t flinch: “That missile hit a school.” Full stop. No hedging. No retreat. In a Senate chamber full of Republicans who are either lying about the Minab strike or hiding behind “we’re waiting on the Pentagon,” one Democrat looked them in the eye and said what the evidence shows.
This is what accountability looks like. And it’s exactly what this war’s architects are terrified of.
Meanwhile, the bill for Trump’s unauthorized war is coming due — and it is staggering. Over $11 billion in the first six days alone. A potential $50 billion supplemental request on the way. Gas prices up nearly 27 cents in a week. And the man who promised you he’d bring prices down is on social media telling you not to worry, because when oil prices go up, “we make a lot of money.”
We’re publishing today because these facts need to be in the same sentence.
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“That Missile Hit a School.” Gillibrand Refuses to Back Down.
Here is what you need to understand about the exchange between Sen. Wicker and Sen. Gillibrand: Wicker wasn’t asking a genuine question. He was doing what Republicans have been doing for two weeks — trying to create enough confusion around the Minab school bombing that the public gives up trying to figure out who is responsible.
Gillibrand, a member of both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, did not give him the confusion he was looking for.
The evidence is not ambiguous. According to the Associated Press, satellite analysis shows the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school had characteristics visible from the air that should have identified it as a civilian site before it was struck. New footage analyzed by multiple outlets, including Bellingcat, appears to show a U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missile striking a clinic near the school on February 28. The Tomahawk is a weapon used by the United States military. Iran does not have Tomahawks. Israel does not have Tomahawks. According to Reuters, two people familiar with the Pentagon’s own internal investigation believe U.S. forces were likely responsible, citing outdated intelligence data used in the targeting process.
And yet Trump told reporters the strike was “done by Iran.” When pressed, he suggested Iran might have Tomahawks because the missiles are “sold to other countries.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went to the Senate floor and said what needed to be said: according to The Hill, he called the claim “beyond asinine” and reminded the president that “Iran doesn’t have Tomahawk missiles, Donald Trump.”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would not be “harassed by The New York Times” into speeding up the investigation. Hegseth said the matter was under investigation while simultaneously claiming “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
That is where we are. A preliminary Pentagon review reportedly found U.S. forces were likely responsible. Forty-six senators, led by Tim Kaine, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and others, sent Hegseth a letter demanding answers by March 18. They asked whether AI tools were used in the targeting. They asked what analysis was done before the strike to confirm the building’s purpose. They asked about the rules of engagement Hegseth bragged about loosening before the bombs fell.
The senators noted that according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, as of March 10, over 1,245 civilians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in this war. The majority of those killed at Minab were girls between the ages of 7 and 12. Neither the United States nor Israel has officially taken responsibility.
Even some Republicans can no longer hold the line. According to The Hill, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana called it “a terrible, terrible mistake.” Sen. James Lankford said the questions were “reasonable.” Sen. Kevin Cramer said the investigation needs to “get to the bottom of it” and “admit if you know whose fault it is.”
But there are no Republican-led hearings. No Republican demands. Just quiet maneuvering while the administration runs out the clock.
Gillibrand didn’t run out the clock. “That missile hit a school.” Write that down.
The Bill Is Already $11 Billion. And It’s Growing Every Day.
While the debate over accountability continues, the financial cost of Trump’s war is starting to break through the noise — and it should terrify every American who was told this administration was going to cut spending and lower prices.
According to The Hill, the Pentagon burned through $5.6 billion in munitions in just the first two days of Operation Epic Fury. That figure was first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by congressional sources. It covers only munitions — not aircraft operations, ship deployments, personnel costs, or damage to U.S. facilities from Iranian retaliation.
By day six, according to The Hill and The New York Times, that number had climbed to more than $11.3 billion. Pentagon officials delivered the estimate to senators in a classified briefing on Capitol Hill. Sen. Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that handles defense appropriations, told reporters Wednesday he believed the $11.3 billion figure was “roughly accurate” — and added that the actual daily operating cost is likely well over $1.5 billion. According to CBS News, Coons said the cost of replacing munitions already used is “probably already well beyond $10 billion.”
Congressional aides, according to the Times, expect the White House to submit a supplemental war funding request soon. Some officials say that request could reach $50 billion. Others say even that figure may be low. For context, according to a Yahoo News report, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were initially projected to cost $50 to $60 billion combined. They ended up costing $8 trillion.
And this war is, by Pete Hegseth’s own words, just getting started.
There is also the matter of what this war is costing you at the pump. According to the Iran war cost tracker using AAA data, national average gas prices jumped nearly 27 cents in a single week — the fastest weekly increase since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply moves, remains under threat. Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public comments since taking power, said that “the lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must also continue to be used,” according to The New York Times.
Trump’s response to rising oil prices on social media: “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.” He added that “stopping an evil Empire from having Nuclear Weapons” was of greater importance to him than oil prices.
Tell that to Americans filling up their tanks this week.
According to The Hill’s Senate Finance subcommittee coverage, senators from both parties expressed alarm Wednesday at the rising national debt, warning future generations will pay the price. Sen. Elizabeth Warren put it plainly: the Defense Department is “swimming in money” and could ask Congress for more as the conflict drags on. “It seems to me,” she said, “that when we’re talking about money here, that the way that we can save the most money would be to stop bombing Iran now. And, just as a side benefit, we could also save a lot of lives.”
Iran’s New Leader. The War Spreading. The Costs Compounding.
The NYT reported Thursday that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has not appeared publicly on video since being appointed Monday. He was reportedly injured in the initial strikes that killed his father. But his written statements, carried by Iranian state media, were unambiguous: Iran will pursue what he called an “effective and regret-inducing defense,” and the Strait of Hormuz will remain blocked.
Those statements have real consequences. According to the Times, Iraq and Oman closed oil terminals after two tankers were attacked and left burning off Iraq’s coast. Qatar said it stopped a missile attack Thursday. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed two drones heading toward the Shaybah oil field. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for attacking a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the region.
Major banks, including Citi and HSBC, temporarily closed offices in the Persian Gulf after Iran threatened to target U.S. and Israeli financial institutions. According to the Times, the threat came after a U.S.-Israeli airstrike hit a building in Tehran linked to Bank Sepah, one of Iran’s oldest financial institutions.
Meanwhile, Israel launched new strikes on central Beirut Thursday, according to the Times, including an area one correspondent described as filled with high-end bars and restaurants — far from the southern suburbs where Hezbollah holds sway. Lebanese residents told the Times there is no longer anywhere safe to go.
The death toll is now over 2,000, the Times reports, mostly in Iran.
And the Pentagon, according to The Hill, has now hit more than 5,500 targets inside Iran and sunk or struck over 60 Iranian ships. U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper delivered those figures Wednesday morning.
Trump told an audience in Kentucky on Wednesday: “We won.” Then added that the United States would remain in the fight “to finish the job.”
No exit strategy. No end date. No accountability for a school full of children. And a bill that is climbing past $11 billion with no cap in sight.
The Bottom Line Today
Senator Gillibrand stood in the Senate and refused to let a Republican senator muddy the waters. That missile hit a school. The evidence is not ambiguous. The administration is lying, stalling, and hoping you move on. Forty-six senators demanded answers by March 18. The Pentagon has not provided them.
Meanwhile, the price tag for this unauthorized war has already topped $11 billion in six days — with a potential $50 billion supplemental request coming — while gas prices are spiking and Iran’s new Supreme Leader is promising the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.
Trump told you he’d lower prices. He told you there would be no new wars. He told you it would last four weeks or less. He told you Iran bombed the school. On every single one of those claims, the facts say something different.
That’s the story. The mainstream press will show you the smoke over Tehran and move on. We’ll keep asking who paid for the missile, who gave the targeting order, and whose daughters are buried in Minab.
Independent media doesn’t have a Pentagon contract or a billionaire owner. What we have is accountability, and the subscribers who make it possible. If this newsletter is where you’re getting the truth, make it official.
— The Really American Team
