Trump brags – On a tarmac before appearing on Fox News, President Donald Trump said the U.S. has lost “only 13” service members in its ongoing conflict with Iran, then compared that number to losses in other wars. He also blamed President Joe Biden for the Iran nuclear deal
President Donald Trump stood on a tarmac on Wednesday, looking out from the middle of a high-stakes moment to deliver a comparison that landed as both defensive and oddly conversational: the claim that the United States has lost “only” 13 service members in its unpopular conflict with Iran.
Trump made the remarks while bragging about the purported successes of his ongoing war on Iran to Fox News. He framed his point by contrasting the death toll he said the U.S. has suffered with the losses he attributed to past conflicts.
“You lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in these various wars,” Trump said. He then pivoted to his tally for the Iran conflict.
“In two wars, Venezuela, where we lost nobody, and here — we lost 13 people. Now, 13 people is 13 too much, but we lost 13 people. In other wars, you lost hundreds of thousands of people.”
He went further, suggesting that the number itself is what shocks people, even while he portrayed the outcome as comparatively restrained.
“So, people don’t like it when you say, ‘Oh, do you know you’ve lost 13.’ We’ve lost, in two major wars — we took over Venezuela, we essentially took over Iran — and we’ve lost, so far, 13 people. Somebody else would’ve lost 100,000 people, OK?”
Trump then added a personal flourish, describing the moment as something he enjoys rather than something that should weigh heavily.
“But I get a kick when I look at somebody on television [and they say], ’He’s lost 13 people. I lost 13 people. They lost 13 people leaving an airport. Obama. Thirteen very good people that I got to know their families.”
The remarks also continued a broader pattern Trump has shown on the subject of predecessors and key milestones. Before. while returning from his high-stakes China visit last week aboard Air Force One. Trump blamed President Joe Biden for the Iran nuclear deal—describing it as something Biden “gave” the U.S.—even though the deal was a preventative diplomatic measure overseen by President Barack Obama in 2015.
“President Biden was an incompetent president,” Trump said. “He gave us the Iran nuclear deal.”
In both sets of comments, the through-line is the same: Trump’s insistence on linking the Iran conflict to a specific, tightly framed number of U.S. deaths—while also pointing to blame and comparisons to other administrations in ways that have repeatedly blurred historical specifics.
The juxtaposition is stark: in one breath. Trump calls “13 people” “too much. ” and in the next. he describes the moment as something that gives him “a kick. ” even as he recites his account of losses alongside claims about taking over Iran. Taken together with his earlier misattribution of responsibility for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. the picture that emerges is one of a president who is willing to simplify the stakes into a punchline—even when the subject is the lives of Americans.
Donald Trump Iran U.S. service members deaths Fox News Joe Biden Barack Obama Iran nuclear deal 2015 Air Force One China visit