U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) took direct aim at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing him of systematically deceiving the American public about the state of Iran’s military as fresh Iranian attacks struck Kuwait’s international airport, left at least one person dead, injured more than 60 others, and rattled the fragile ceasefire that has defined the war’s most recent phase.
In a post on X at 12:38 p.m. on June 3, 2026, Murphy wrote: “Hegseth consistently gaslights that Iran’s military is ‘destroyed’. It’s a total lie — as evidenced by today’s devastating attack on Kuwait. 13 Americans dead, billions wasted, and Iran still has the majority of their missiles/drones; control of the Strait. A disaster.”
The Attack on Kuwait
The Kuwaiti army’s General Staff confirmed that Terminal 1 of Kuwait International Airport was targeted in a hostile missile and drone attack, blaming the strike on what it called “criminal Iranian aggression.” The army said 17 drones and 13 ballistic missiles were used in the attack. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said that vital facilities and diplomatic missions were damaged and one person was killed. The official Kuwait News Agency reported that 63 people were injured and air traffic was temporarily suspended.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have struck U.S. military bases in Kuwait, describing the operation as “precise and concentrated missile strikes against the military bases of the American occupiers in Kuwait, resulting in the successful destruction of targets and the ignition of fires.” The U.S. military said two Iranian missiles fell apart en route to Kuwait and that it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country. The military also said U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Bahrain’s Defense Ministry said its military intercepted and destroyed three missiles and a number of drones fired by Iran.
U.S. Counterstrikes and the Strait of Hormuz
U.S. Central Command confirmed it carried out a new round of defensive strikes in response, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to lay mines, and conducting strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks sent oil prices up more than 2% as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, more than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Iran launched the deadly new set of attacks in the Persian Gulf as it traded strikes with the United States, the latest exchange to threaten the fragile ceasefire and stalled peace talks between the two countries. The Strait, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, has remained largely impassable to commercial shipping throughout the conflict — a central point of Murphy’s criticism.
The Hegseth Claims Murphy Is Challenging
Murphy’s post targeted a specific and recurring posture from Hegseth: declarations that Iran’s military capacity has been effectively eliminated. Following the April ceasefire, Hegseth declared that “Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield — a capital V military victory,” adding that the U.S.-Israeli operation achieved “every single objective,” including the destruction of Iran’s missile program.
At a Pentagon press conference, Hegseth stated that “by any measure, Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come,” and that “Iran begged for this ceasefire.” Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine echoed those claims at the time, stating that approximately 80% of Iran’s air defense systems had been destroyed and that Tehran’s ballistic missile program and one-way attack drone capacity had been heavily degraded.
Lawmakers Had Already Pushed Back
Murphy is not the only member of Congress who has questioned the accuracy of those characterizations. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) previously called Hegseth’s claims “absolutely ludicrous, given everything that we’ve heard from various sources, including public statements from military leaders themselves,” adding: “There’s no question that Iran still has more than 1,000 missiles, and I can tell you that I’m somewhat shocked to hear some of the rhetoric from Secretary Hegseth given what we have been told reliably.” The Hill
Murphy himself had confronted Hegseth directly at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing weeks earlier. Murphy pressed Hegseth and Caine on the administration’s strategy to reopen the Strait and called for transparency, noting significant inconsistencies between the president’s premature declarations of strategic victory and intelligence reports showing Iran retains most of its pre-existing missile and drone capacity. Murphy argued that intelligence estimates suggested Iran was “in a position to hold out for potentially years,” and warned that countries under attack are historically “willing to put up with a whole lot of economic misery in order to preserve national pride.”
The Human and Financial Toll
Murphy’s figure of 13 Americans dead aligns with official Pentagon data. In the 40 days since the start of the Iran war, 13 U.S. service members were killed and 381 were wounded, according to U.S. Central Command. CENTCOM confirmed to The Intercept that “13 service members were killed in action and one service member passed due to a non-combat related medical emergency during Operation Epic Fury.”
The financial cost referenced in Murphy’s post has been a defining element of the war’s political debate. According to a Pentagon briefing to Congress, the war cost an estimated $11.3 billion in its first six days alone, with costs running at approximately $1 billion per day thereafter. An independent Iran war cost tracker placed the total estimated U.S. taxpayer spending at over $101 billion as of Wednesday.
Kuwait Expels Iranian Diplomats, Condemns Attacks
In response to Wednesday’s strikes, Kuwait took swift diplomatic action. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d’affaires of the Iranian Embassy to lodge an official protest of the attacks, and Kuwait expelled two Iranian diplomats. The Foreign Ministry stated Kuwait would “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks.
The airport attack is one of several strikes Iran has carried out against Kuwaiti infrastructure since the broader conflict began in late February 2026, when U.S. and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury. The strikes have repeatedly targeted Terminal 1 and critical air traffic control infrastructure at Kuwait International Airport. Flights were temporarily suspended following Wednesday’s attack, though the Kuwait News Agency reported that service later resumed via Terminal 4.
Broader War Context
Relations between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also came under scrutiny Wednesday, as Trump confirmed during a podcast interview that he had called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” during a tense phone call. Netanyahu dismissed the remark as a “tactical disagreement,” saying, “Sometimes, as in the best of families, we have these tactical disagreements,” and that both leaders agreed on the key points regarding Iran.
As of Wednesday, the ceasefire between the United States and Iran — declared effective in early April — remains under severe strain. Repeated strikes and counter-strikes in the Gulf, an ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stalled peace negotiations, and now a fresh assault on allied civilian infrastructure have combined to cast serious doubt on the administration’s assertions that the war’s major objectives have been achieved. Senator Murphy’s post, citing the dead, the cost, and the unimpeded Iranian military activity, captured a growing bipartisan frustration that the war’s official narrative and its battlefield reality have yet to align.