Trump’s ’poor planning’ obliterated his own leverage amid mounting threats

President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation about the Iran war at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 1, 2026. Alex Brandon/Pool via REUTERS

President Donald Trump and the Pentagon's "poor planning" have left the U.S. with diminished leverage, according to a new report from The Hill, at a time when mounting global threats remain very much in play.

On Monday morning, The Hill published its latest report on the U.S. military's depleted munitions stock, which has been eaten into by Trump's spiraling war in Iran. While the White House has attempted to deny reports about the stockpile, Trump also reportedly ripped into his own officials over the situation during a recent visit to Camp David.

"America’s depleted arsenal of premier offensive and defensive weapons stockpiles is undermining President Trump’s leverage with Iran," The Hill explained. "The military’s supply of its premium long-range missiles and interceptors for key missile defense systems is nearly exhausted after more than five months of airstrikes against Iran, recent news reports revealed, constraining Trump in authorizing major combat operations against the Islamic Republic."

The Hill further detailed how the military has used up “virtually all” of its surface-to-surface munitions, known as "army tactical missile systems" (ATACMS) and "precision strike missiles" (PrSM), according to a report from Reuters last week. These munitions, both manufactured by Lockheed Martin, are capable of delivering strikes hundreds of miles away, so depleting them would require piloted missions over Iran to conduct further airstrikes, something Trump is reportedly considering.

The outlet cited recent comments from Leon Panetta, the former Obama-era Defense Secretary and CIA director, about the situation and the threats a depleted munitions stockpile poses. Panetta warned that such a shortfall in military stock presents real dangers, not just in the face of continued conflict with Iran, "but also when there are potential threats from Russia and China — particularly should Beijing decide to invade Taiwan."

"So, this is a dangerous moment for the United States to have these reduced stockpiles of key weapons at a time when these threats are all real," Panetta said during a recent CNN appearance.

Speaking with The Hill, Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, said that Iran has "likely" been aware of the military's stockpile issue for a while now.

"This likely affected their strategy: to draw out the war and simply outlast the United States," Kavanagh said. "But the public coverage of this information is unlikely to have affected Iranian decision-making for the simple fact that it was already known. Do the shortages affect U.S. leverage? Definitely. Does coverage of them have any further impact? No, because Iran already knows about them.”

Ari Cicurel, the associate director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told the outlet that the situation gives Iran more negotiating leverage and gives China key insights into "how long Washington could sustain a fight over Taiwan.” He also pinned the issue on "procrastination" across multiple presidential administrations.

"Years of procrastination across multiple administrations of both parties left U.S. magazines too shallow before the war, and closing the gap now demands sustained multiyear appropriations and expanded production capacity,” Cicurel explained. “That requires Congress to fund the multiyear munitions contracts, the Pentagon to break supply chain bottlenecks and buy cheaper munitions in bulk, and both investing in the workers who build these weapons."

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