He endlessly repeats patterns of bad behavior.

may try to pull.

Not the Pentagon.

The media reported the high cost, and he's blaming said high cost on the District itself.

Thus, The Pentagon reporting 'costs' directly to him is not a necessary part of IQ45's 'argument' (i.e. he is apparently claiming to have been informed of costs by the local politicians) ... ergo, there's not really a contradiction with the Pentagon here.

Is he full of shit about having gotten the number directly from teh Politicians? I'm sure he is ... but that's his 'argument'.

Ya know, it's part and parcel of his all-knowing-tough-guy-awesome-sauce-super-powerful facade he loves to portray. He wasn't 'surprised' by the cost, you see? He knows more than the Pentagon, thus he doesn't need them to inform him, cause he already talked to the important people himself cause he just ON TOP of EVERYTHING, and he knows them, and they either fear or love him, depending on which bullshit storyline he's made up to explain away his INCOMPETENCE and WEAKNESS.

IOW the Pentagon is doing his bidding here, he wants it to look like he took on the 'corrupt DC politicians' (you know, a lot of them are BLACKS!) and he's the hero, saving taxpayer dollars from their rapacious ways.

Everyone knows it's bullshit but, since Trump blames everything on someone else, the someone else has to go through the formality of denying it so they won't be attacked. Become a persistent pattern.