Trump Downplays 18 US Soldier Deaths in Iran War Hours Before Dignified Transfer

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump attended a dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers who were killed in the U.S.’s unauthorized and unprovoked war on Iran, which Trump launched in February and has recently escalated.

Trump said in a Truth Social post shortly before the ceremony began that he was attending the event to “honor” the fallen servicemembers. The ceremony came just a day after Trump faced widespread criticism for a separate social media post in which he appeared to downplay soldiers’ deaths in the war.

In that post, Trump shared a chart that compared the U.S. death toll in the Iran war to the number of U.S. soldiers killed in other U.S.-involved conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, and Vietnam. The chart depicted the 18 deaths over the first few months of the Iran War as a far lower death toll than in other conflicts.

“These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!” Trump demanded in his post.

Trump has issued similar complaints throughout the war. In May, when 13 U.S. servicemembers had been killed so far, he said that he got “a kick” out of people citing their deaths to criticize the war.

Trump’s “flippant attitude as he talks about the deaths is disgusting and disrespectful to the families and the service members’ sacrifices,” Michael T. McPhearson, executive director for Veterans for Peace, said in comments to Truthout at the time.

Trump was lambasted for sharing the chart on Tuesday night, just hours before he was set to take part in the dignified transfer ceremony.

“He’s basically saying only 18 [dead], we should take that as a win. … Even for him, shocking,” opined MSNOW’s Stephanie Ruhle.

“It is sickening that the President would downplay the loss of 18 American soldiers killed during his ongoing Iran war & brag about how it’s not AS bad as some of the other disastrous American wars he promised he’d never repeat,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland).

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According to Al Jazeera, at least 3,468 Iranians have been killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli war on the country so far. Another 26,500 have been injured, though these figures have not been updated since major hostilities resumed earlier this month.

In comments to reporters on his way to the dignified transfer ceremony, Trump made the audacious claim that the deceased soldiers had stated support for his aims in the war.

“All of them said very strongly, ‘We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said.

The war has not resulted in Iran agreeing to limit its nuclear capabilities. In fact, Iran had already promised not to develop nuclear weapons during negotiations before the war began.

When a reporter noted that most Americans are “firmly against this war,” Trump interrupted before the question could proceed, asserting that Americans backed the war despite overwhelming evidence showing otherwise.

“Americans aren’t against the war. A poll just came out,” he said. “Americans don’t want high gasoline prices, but they’re not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll.”

Several polls demonstrate that the war is unpopular among the American public.

A Fox News poll in May showed that 60 percent of voters were opposed to the war, with only 40 percent in support. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll from earlier this month — when a temporary Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was still tepidly in place — found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68 percent) felt the war was not worth fighting. And an from last week showed that 65 percent of Americans wanted the war to end “as soon as possible,” with only 15 percent saying they supported it continuing.

“The war with Iran is the most unpopular conflict among Americans since polls have been taken. That has been true since the war’s first day,” political scientist Larry Sabato said earlier this month.

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