The Atlantic published a bombshell report on Monday revealing that Vice President JD Vance has “repeatedly questioned” whether or not Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is giving President Donald Trump an accurate portrayal of the war in Iran and the toll it is taking on the U.S. military’s arsenal.

The Atlantic’s Missy Ryan, Vivian Salama, Michael Scherer, and Nancy A. Youssef share a byline on the report titled, “The Pentagon May Not Be Telling Trump the Full Picture About the War.”

The report cited two senior administration officials recalling that “the vice president has queried the accuracy of the information the Pentagon has provided about the war. He has also expressed his concerns about the availability of certain missile systems in discussions with President Trump.”

“Both Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and General Dan Caine, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have publicly said that U.S. weapons stockpiles are robust, and portrayed the damage to Iranian forces after eight weeks of fighting as drastic,” added the Atlantic report before quoting Vance insiders:

Vance’s advisers, who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity, told us that the vice president has presented his concerns as his own rather than accusing Hegseth or Caine of misleading the president. Vance is trying, the advisers suggested, to avoid making this personal, or to create divisions in Trump’s war Cabinet. Some of Vance’s confidantes, however, believe that Hegseth’s portrayal has been so positive as to be misleading.

The Atlantic also reported that the Pentagon’s public claims of Iran’s losses during the war also offer an “incomplete picture at best” – citing sources familiar with US intelligence assessments.

“According to those internal estimates, Iran retains two-thirds of its air force, the bulk of its missile-launching capability, and most of its small, fast boats, which can lay mines and harass traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. At least in terms of resuming stalled maritime commerce, ‘those are the real threat,’ one person told us,” added the report. The report also revealed that Vance has brought his concerns about munitions directly to the president in meetings, which also included other top national security figures.

Vance was widely reported as being one of the least supportive members of Trump’s team at the onset of the war and counseled the president against attacking, even warning a prolonged conflict would be a “disaster.”

Read the full Atlantic report here.

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