WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unloaded a preemptive attack on congressional critics of the Iran war on Wednesday, shortly before the Pentagon revealed that the two-month-long Operation Epic Fury has cost an estimated $25 billion.

“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless, and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans two months in,” Hegseth said in his opening remarks to the House Armed Services Committee.

“Lest I remind you, and my generation understands, how long we were in Iraq, how long we were in Afghanistan, how long we were in Vietnam. [We are] two months in on an existential fight for the safety of the American people. Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb.”

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Hegseth called Trump the “best negotiator in the world” before taking questions from lawmakers and engaging in fiery clashes with Democrats on the panel.

Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) mocked Trump’s claims that Iran has given into his core war demands — only for Tehran to publicly deny it — saying the commander in chief appeared to be relying on “Jedi mind tricks” to make Iran end its nuclear ambitions.

“It is worth noting that every president prior to this one, including Trump in his first term, also prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without actually having to go to war in Iran,” Smith told Hegseth.

“It’s worth noting, of course, that the [Strait of Hormuz] was open before the war started. Now we’re negotiating to get back to status quo, and Iran’s most recent offer is to say we’ll talk about nukes later,” Smith said.

“So what is the plan to actually turn all of this lethal, kinetic action into an improvement in the nuclear situation?”

Hegseth slammed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the official term for the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal — and argued “you have to stare down this kind of enemy who’s hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they’re at the table, giving it up.”

“President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment,” he added, saying that “North Korea is the lesson” for policymakers.

“Under the Clinton administration,” Hegseth explained, the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang gathered so many ballistic missiles that the ballistic missiles allowed them to blackmail the region and the world to say, ‘We’re gonna get a nuke, and you can’t do anything about it.’”

The $25 billion price tag, mostly for munitions, was revealed at the hearing by Pentagon chief financial officer Jules Hurst III — coming on the heels of reporting that the Trump administration might seek a supplemental military spending package of up to $200 billion to pay for the war.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asserted that elevated energy prices mean that the total cost to the American public was “$631 billion, which means it’s an increase of $5,000 a year for American households.”

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), in one of the most heated exchanges, accused Hegseth and Trump alike of “lying to the American public about this war from day one.”

“You have misled the public about why we are at war. You and the president have offered ever-changing reasons for this war. You’ve misled the public about the progress of the war,” the Californian said.

“The president has got himself and America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He’s desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes. It is in America’s and indeed the world’s interest that he succeed in that.”

Hegseth returned fire, calling Garamendi’s use of the word “quagmire” an attempt to “stain the troops.”

“My generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan — years and years of nebulous missions and utopian nation-building that led us to nothing,” he said. 

“Shame on you calling this a quagmire. Two months in the effort, what they’ve undertaken, what they’ve succeeded, the success on the battlefield that could create strategic opportunities, the courage of a president to confront a nuclear Iran. And you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies.”

The ongoing three-week-old cease-fire has dramatically reduced the cost of waging the war, though US consumers continue to pay more for fuel due to a spike in global oil costs.

The relatively low cost of current war expenditures could reduce Congress’s leverage to enforce a 60-day limit on conflicts without its approval. 

The two-month window established by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 has historically not been enforced by courts, which have deferred to Congress to use its power over spending to address alleged violations.

Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28 — 60 days ago.