Trump Makes Jaw-Dropping Insult to the Dead of His Own War

Politics admin September 4, 2026 0 Comments

Trump Makes Jaw-Dropping Insult to the Dead of His Own War

President Donald Trump has dismissed his war in Iran, in which 18 U.S. service members have been killed, as “small potatoes for us.”

The president, 80, was taking questions in the Oval Office on Friday when he was asked how he would describe the conflict with Iran.

The question came after Vice President JD Vance insisted on Thursday it wasn’t a war despite the U.S. carrying out new strikes this week.

“Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly is it?” ABC News’ Rachel Scott asked Trump.

“Well, I’ll tell you what, a lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s, it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump said. “We did Venezuela, and we did this.”

But the president did not stop there. He went on to compare war casualties to back up his claim that the conflict in Iran was “small potatoes.”

“In Venezuela, we lost nobody, and this, we lost 18 people,” Trump said. “In Vietnam you lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people.”

Trump, who himself received five military draft deferments during the Vietnam War, went on to say that he would call the conflict with Iran “intermittent strikes” and agreed with Vance that it was not a war.

“We’re not fighting right now. There’s no fighting,” Trump rambled.

“We’re taking out a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait. We control it very strongly. We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait,” he babbled about the crucial waterway between Iran and Oman.

More than 50,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in the region.

The U.S. carried out a series of new strikes against Iranian military targets on Tuesday, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime facilities, and mine-laying capabilities, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attempted to carry out attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and against U.S. service members, according to CENTCOM.

Since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 18 American service members have been killed. Most recently, Sgt. Michael Swinton was killed on July 19 at Erbil Air Base in Iraq during the disposal of a downed Iranian attack drone.

Trump attended the dignified transfer of the four service members killed in July at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 22.

“It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war,” Trump said Friday.

Scott was quick to push back on his “small potatoes” comment, noting that 18 service members had been killed since the war began.

Trump did not respond to her pushback noting the number of service members killed, but seized on her comment about “record-long deployments” after the USS Lincoln set a record with 286 days at sea without making port before it docked in Thailand this week.

“Why is it record-long? How long were we in Vietnam? How long were we in Vietnam?” Trump shot back.

Scott tried to clarify that she was referencing the USS Lincoln, but the president refused to let her respond and instead spoke over her, arguing about preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon before bringing up those killed.

“We lost 18 souls, 18 great souls. I was there to greet the families of those people at Dover, and they’re great. I got very friendly with some of the families. They were incredible families, but—and one is too much. But in Vietnam we lost tens of thousands of people. In Afghanistan, we lost a lot,” Trump said.