Desperate Trump weighs “mother of all bombs” for war launched without a plan

President Donald Trump’s war with Iran was launched without adequate planning, against the warnings of his own Army chief and with a missile defense stockpile so depleted that it could take until 2030 to recover, according to officials and internal Pentagon assessments.

Now, the Pentagon has developed plans that include dropping the “mother of all bombs” on Iranian nuclear sites — a weapon officials privately describe as unsuitable for deeply buried targets and useful mainly for its psychological impact.

The administration’s handling of the conflict has exposed deep rifts at the highest levels of government and raised questions about whether the president understood the military’s limitations before ordering the strikes.

Gen. Randy George, then the Army chief of staff, warned in late December — two months before the war began — that the U.S. military was critically short of Patriot and THAAD missile defense munitions and that the shortage would last at least five years, CBS News reported.

His risk analysis appeared in the Pentagon’s Global Force Management Allocation Plan for fiscal 2027. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ousted George in April, while the war was underway, in what critics have described as a purge of competent and principled officers.

Officials who spoke to CBS News attributed the shortfall to the transfer of Patriot systems to Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, the expenditure of munitions to defend Israel and reduced defense industry capacity. Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said these are precisely the munitions that would be most heavily used in a conflict with China.

“Air defense — missile defense — that will be huge,” he said.

CSIS estimated that the U.S. entered 2026 with roughly 2,300 Patriot interceptors and expended between 1,050 and 1,430 during the Iran war — potentially consuming about 62% of its prewar inventory.

Prewar THAAD stockpiles stood at around 355 interceptors, of which 190 to 290 were used, potentially consuming about 82%. New THAAD contracts take more than four years to fulfill; Patriot PAC-3 orders average 3½ years.

One U.S. official said that even if no more munitions were expended, replenishing the stockpile to the already low December 2025 levels would take until 2030.

Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell denied the reports.

“Claims of U.S. munitions shortages are false,” he said, adding that the U.S. retains “everything required to strike at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

The war has also exposed divisions within the administration. Vice President JD Vance suggested in an interview aired Friday that he may have disagreed with Trump over the conflict.

“Even if you disagree with him on that one issue, you can have that disagreement. And I think I have had that disagreement,” Vance said on a political talk show hosted by former White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

Vance was responding to a question about his relationship with former Trump ally Tucker Carlson, who has sharply criticized the war as serving Israeli rather than American interests. Vance said Carlson was “very, very angry” over the war.

“He and I have had that conversation in private, in public. I know how he feels, and I understand,” he said.

Meanwhile, CNN reported Wednesday that the U.S. military has developed new strike plans that include the potential use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, commonly known as the MOAB, against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if Trump orders a resumption of combat operations.

Multiple officials said the plans could be activated before or after the upcoming midterm elections. One source said plans for strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, including a suspected underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain, explicitly included the potential deployment of the MOAB.

But officials questioned whether the weapon could achieve Washington’s objectives. The GPS-guided bomb can devastate an area equivalent to about nine city blocks, but it is not designed to penetrate deeply underground.

“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” a source familiar with the planning told CNN, describing it as unsuitable for deep penetration.

The bomb’s large blast radius could also raise serious concerns about civilian casualties if strikes targeted energy infrastructure near populated areas.

The source suggested the MOAB could exert psychological pressure, particularly given the limitations of available munitions against deeply buried targets. If accurate, that assessment suggests the administration is considering the weapon partly for its propaganda value, despite its limitations against the proposed targets.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.