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President Donald Trump took part in celebrations following the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup final soccer match, just minutes after CENTCOM announced another U.S. fatality in the Middle East, the result of his illegal, unprovoked war on Iran.
Trump, who appeared jubilant despite the large crowd booing and jeering him, showed up on the field alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino after Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina on Sunday. Handing off the FIFA World Cup trophy to the victorious players, Trump awkwardly remained on the stage, and stayed there even after Infantino tried to direct him away.
Later, the Spain soccer team’s social media accounts appeared to edit Trump out of their pictures — a notable snub to Trump, who has expressed anger toward their country’s leaders over NATO spending and for not allowing the U.S. to use its airfields for the Iran War.
Despite Trump’s friendship with Infantino — the FIFA president presented Trump with a “peace prize” last year after he failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize — FIFA’s social media also appeared to keep Trump out of its posted pictures of the winning team.
Any hopes of a “peace prize” this year are likely dashed for Trump, given his decision to launch the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February. He has continued waging that war despite no congressional approval for its continuation.
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About an hour before the conclusion of the World Cup match (and likely as Trump was preparing to take the field), CENTCOM announced that a U.S. servicemember was killed in northern Iraq “during a controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone over the weekend. That announcement was preceded by an announcement that two other servicemembers had been killed in Jordan in an attack on Friday.
At least 17 U.S. servicemembers have been killed in the Middle East since the war began. On Monday, The New York Times also reported that the Pentagon has been withholding reports of other U.S. casualties, including dozens of injuries, and has downplayed attacks from Iran.
The recent deaths and newly revealed casualties come as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a temporary ceasefire agreement between Iran and the U.S., appears to have completely deteriorated, with Iran indicating that it is presently suspended. At multiple junctures during the war, Trump has claimed that Iran’s military capabilities have been nearly decimated, only for reports such as these later demonstrating that his assessments have been incorrect.
Iranian authorities say that at least 50 people in Iran have been killed by U.S. airstrikes this month, as tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent weeks. Another 500 individuals have been wounded, those authorities added. If accurate, the total number of Iranians killed during the war would be around 3,500 people, with around 25,000 injured, though exact figures are unknown.
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