Asked Friday about Vice President JD Vance's view that he would not call the hostilities a war because major combat operations ended months ago, President Donald Trump agreed and minimized the scope. "It's not a big thing," he said. He added, "You know, we do intermittent strikes," and said he saw "a lot of truth" in the idea that "we're not fighting right now."
Once more, Trump set the figure - 18 US service members killed - against the much larger casualties sustained over many years in Vietnam and Afghanistan. He acknowledged "we lost 18 great souls," while adding, "One is too much." He also said, "What we've done is amazing." He added, "We took over Venezuela, and we have essentially taken over Iran."
Americans are paying more for energy, and polls show voters give Trump poor marks for handling the war. Together, those factors have left Republicans vulnerable to ceding control of Congress during the November midterm elections. Attempts inside the administration to soften the perceived impact have drawn criticism from Democrats. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday he "misspoke," acknowledging that the previous day he had wrongly asserted that zero American service members had been killed in the war in Iran.
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