“22 of our service members have been killed in Trump's illegal war. Not 18 like we were told. The Pentagon hid four more heroes' deaths from us for months. Congress cannot let them get away with this.
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In Forty-Eight Hours the Commerce Secretary Says "There Haven't Been American Deaths" in Iran, the Vice President Says "I Wouldn't Call It a War," and an Airman's Widow Is Told Her Combat Benefits Depend on Congress Declaring One
September 4, 2026
On September 2, 2026, in a CNBC interview from the G20 finance meeting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said of the six-month-old Iran campaign that "there haven't been American deaths, it's really just an economic choke out." The Defense Department's own casualty database records 18 U.S. service members killed and more than 400 wounded in action since the war began on February 28. Lutnick apologized the next morning on X, saying he had been thinking of the January operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. President Trump offered the same explanation on Truth Social. Hours later, at a White House briefing on September 3, Vice President JD Vance was asked whether the conflict would be over before the midterms and answered, "I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting" — in a briefing where he had described Iran shooting at commercial shipping repeatedly, before and after. The semantics are not academic. Libby Klinner, whose husband Air Force Maj. John "Alex" Klinner was killed March 12 in a KC-135 crash during refueling operations, wrote that a casualty assistance officer told her combat-related entitlements — Hostile Fire Pay, Imminent Danger Pay, the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion — were unavailable because Congress had not declared war. The Air Force opened a review and later said classification confusion, not denial, was the cause; a Defense Department review found the family was receiving all eligible benefits. Vance told reporters the administration would "work that on the back end." Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) called Vance's framing "profoundly disrespectful" to the families of the 18 dead. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) had already introduced legislation in August to stop the Pentagon from resetting the war's casualty count by moving deaths after July 7 onto a separate page labeled "Overseas Operations."
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Statements Recorded
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22 Statements
“This is DISGUSTING and FAKE. A complete LIE. Shame on the Washington Post — they're worse than Iranian state media.
“We'll ultimately get out, unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela. … Iran wants to make a deal so bad. They are calling constantly. … [It will end] right after — maybe before — but right after the midterms.
“The war is not continuing. What we're trying to do now is resolve what has already been a big success. … We believe it'll be resolved soon.
“Donald Trump promised not to start endless wars in the Middle East, but to stop them, and then turned around and did the exact opposite in Iran. … We've got to stop this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed gas prices to the highest levels, for instance, on Labor Day ever seen in the United States of America.
“No. Anytime you are at war or in a military escalation, it is certainly not 'small potatoes.' It is serious. I think we all recognize that.
“A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing.
“We took over Venezuela and we have essentially taken over Iran.
“He doesn't care that you pay more for food. He doesn't care you pay more for gas. He doesn't care our kids are dying in a dumb war. He is for him, and not for you.
“Tell that to the families of those who’ve died, or to the hundreds of other servicemembers who’ve been injured. This whole war is just a game to Trump. He doesn’t care about the consequences, because he has no idea what it means to fight for our country.
“"Small potatoes." That's how Donald Trump feels about the war he started in Iran. Tell that to the families of the 18 troops we've lost, the hundreds of wounded servicemembers, and the Americans suffering every single day from record high prices. There's nothing small about it.
“What a horrific thing for our commander in chief to say about people who sacrificed their lives for our country.
“Ordering Americans into harm's way is maybe the most solemn and serious responsibility of the Commander in Chief. And this guy calls it small potatoes?
“18 Americans dead. Hundreds more wounded. That's not "small potatoes", Mr. President. As elites talk tough and bang the war drums from their gold-plated offices, it's working class folks who have to pick up a rifle, jump in a tank, and do the fighting.
“Trump apparently thinks 18 service members dying is "small potatoes". Absolutely horrible.
“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!
“We will certainly work that on the back end.
“When you ask, when will this end, you're asking me a question, like, 'When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?' I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians.
“I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up.
“I misspoke. 18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss.
“Profoundly disrespectful to the loved ones of the 18 American service members who've died for Trump's WAR of choice.
“The way the president is playing Iran — there haven't been American deaths, it's really just an economic choke out.
Background (1)— earlier statements that set the stage▸
“The Trump administration has broken so many norms of acceptable behavior. We would never have had to introduce legislation like this under any previous president, because it just simply would not be done.