{"id":1105,"date":"2026-07-22T20:37:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:37:37","slug":"trump-downplays-18-us-soldier-deaths-in-iran-war-hours-before-dignified-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1105","title":{"rendered":"Trump Downplays 18 US Soldier Deaths in Iran War Hours Before Dignified Transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news \u2014 make a <\/span><\/i>quick donation<\/span><\/i> to Truthout today!\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Hegseth: \u201cGreatest Threat\u201d to US Would Be Failing to Give Pentagon $1.5T Budget<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump attended a dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers who were killed in the U.S.\u2019s unauthorized and unprovoked war on Iran, which Trump launched in February and has recently escalated. <\/p>\n

Trump said in a Truth Social post shortly before the ceremony began that he was attending the event to \u201chonor\u201d 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\u2019 deaths in the war.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the real facts. REPORT THEM!\u201d Trump demanded in his post.<\/p>\n

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 \u201ca kick\u201d out of people citing their deaths to criticize the war. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s \u201cflippant attitude as he talks about the deaths is disgusting and disrespectful to the families and the service members\u2019 sacrifices,\u201d Michael T. McPhearson, executive director for Veterans for Peace, said in comments to Truthout<\/em> at the time. <\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe\u2019s basically saying only 18 [dead], we should take that as a win. \u2026 Even for him, shocking,\u201d opined MSNOW\u2019s <\/em>Stephanie Ruhle. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sickening that the President would downplay the loss of 18 American soldiers killed during his ongoing Iran war & brag about how it\u2019s not AS bad as some of the other disastrous American wars he promised he\u2019d never repeat,\u201d said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland).<\/p>\n

Read more Smotrich Says US Fighting Iran as Israel Sits Back Is \u201cBest for Us\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Al Jazeera<\/em>, 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them said very strongly, \u2018We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,’\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

When a reporter noted that most Americans are \u201cfirmly against this war,\u201d Trump interrupted before the question could proceed, asserting that Americans backed the war despite overwhelming evidence showing otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans aren\u2019t against the war. A poll just came out,\u201d he said. \u201cAmericans don\u2019t want high gasoline prices, but they\u2019re not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several polls demonstrate that the war is unpopular among the American public.<\/p>\n

A Fox News <\/em>poll in May showed that 60 percent of voters were opposed to the war, with only 40 percent in support. A Washington Post<\/em>\/Ipsos poll from earlier this month \u2014 when a temporary Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was still tepidly in place \u2014 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 \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d with only 15 percent saying they supported it continuing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe war with Iran is the most unpopular conflict among Americans since polls have been taken. That has been true since the war\u2019s first day,\u201d political scientist Larry Sabato said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Threatens to Bomb Iranian Civilian Sites, Potential War Crimes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump also said that support for the war is high among Americans \u2014 a claim that multiple polls indicate is false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Downplays 18 US Soldier Deaths in Iran War Hours Before Dignified Transfer - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1105\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Downplays 18 US Soldier Deaths in Iran War Hours Before Dignified Transfer - 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