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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 19, 2026· Updated

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

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."

“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.”
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) · Sep 19, 2026

Sep 11, 2026· Updated

Eleven Days After the Interior Secretary Tells the Smithsonian That Federal Agencies "Cannot in Good Conscience Continue to Support" It "Under Current Leadership," Its First Black Secretary Announces He Is Retiring — Lonnie Bunch Says "It Has Been Stressful," Padilla Says He "Spoke Truth to Power," and the Republican Regent Looks Forward to a Successor Who Will "Preserve America's History"

On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Lonnie G. Bunch III announced that he will retire as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by the end of the year. Bunch, 73, has spent 38 years at the Smithsonian, was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and in 2019 became the first African American and the first historian to hold the institution's top job. "It is with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement," he said in the Smithsonian's release. Chief Justice John Roberts, who chairs the Board of Regents as the Smithsonian's chancellor, said Bunch "has pursued excellence in the telling of our nation's story" and that the Regents would work with him "to ensure a smooth transition for his successor." The announcement lands after eighteen months of escalating pressure from the Trump administration. A March 2025 executive order directed Vice President JD Vance, himself a Regent, to remove "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from the Smithsonian's museums. In August 2025 the president posted that the institution was "OUT OF CONTROL." On July 4, 2026, the White House Domestic Policy Council issued a 162-page report on the National Museum of American History concluding that the museum "under its current leadership and current interpretive ideology, cannot be trusted to tell America's story honestly," and three weeks later the president ordered "warning signs" posted on the sidewalks outside it. Then on August 28, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley wrote to the Regents that executive departments and agencies "cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership by, for example, loaning artifacts for exhibits, enabling procurement processes and making discretionary grants," alleged that the institution's culture "may have resulted in significant violations of Federal antidiscrimination law," and asked for an in-person meeting with the board. Bunch told The New York Times that the fights with the administration were not the reason — "now's the time" — but conceded that "it has been stressful. And at a certain point, I'd like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone." He told The Washington Post he had been weighing retirement for about a year. The White House did not immediately comment, and House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, whose committee oversees the Smithsonian, issued no statement. Democrats did: Sen. Alex Padilla said Bunch "spoke truth to power" in the face of the president's attacks and that "the job now falls to the Board of Regents and Congress" to protect his work; Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Regent, called him "a student of history who has devoted his life to telling America's full history"; Rep. Chellie Pingree, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel that funds the Smithsonian, said he had steered the institution "through a period of unprecedented political interference"; and Rep. Terri Sewell praised "his commitment to telling the full, honest story of our nation." The one Republican Regent to comment, Rep. Carlos Giménez, said he looked forward to a search for "a new Secretary who will preserve America's history and master the art of storytelling for generations to come." The Regents — the Chief Justice, the Vice President, three senators, three representatives and nine citizen members — will choose Bunch's successor.

“So, I'm asking for the Smithsonian to install the 11-foot Washington statue that was featured at the recent Freedom 250 Grand Prix Race in the Museum's Flag Hall, and dedicate it this Constitution Day, September 17, 2026. Immediately design and display a five-year exhibition worthy of the Life, Sacrifice, and Contributions of George Washington. Then, as soon as it is ready, install a 30-foot Washington Colossus where "Infinity" stands today. Replace a sculpture that says nothing about America with the man who, more than anyone else, says everything about America.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 11, 2026

A U.S. Bomb Misses a Communications Tower by 440 Feet and Lands on a Fisherman's Daughter's Wedding in Kuhestak — Asked About the Four Dead, the Vice President Says He Is "Extremely Skeptical" and That "Sometimes, Things Happen"

On the night of Tuesday, September 1, 2026, dozens of people gathered at a home in Kuhestak, a fishing town on the Iranian coast of the Strait of Hormuz, for the wedding of a fisherman's daughter. A munition struck the building. Iranian authorities named four dead — four-year-old Amir Ali Karimi, 16-year-old Mohammad Malahi, 43-year-old Kolsoum Malahi and 43-year-old Zarkhatoun Taheri — and the Iranian Red Crescent put the wounded at 67; a 22-year-old woman later died in hospital, bringing the reported toll to five. Reuters and The New York Times independently verified footage showing a wedding was underway when the building was hit. The strike was part of a wave of U.S. attacks on southern Iran that ended a month-long lull in the war. Six bombs targeted a communications tower in Kuhestak; one went astray by roughly 440 feet and hit the house. Weapons experts identified the ordnance as a Joint Standoff Weapon glide bomb, and three independent analysts concluded the munition was American rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper ordered an internal review. CENTCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said the command was aware of reports "which originated from Iranian state media" and that "the U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC." Asked about it at a White House briefing on Thursday, September 3, Vice President JD Vance said he was extremely skeptical of the Iranian account, said the United States never targets civilians, said the administration was investigating because "we care" — and, of the deaths, that "sometimes, things happen." The phrase drew immediate backlash. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a lead sponsor of the Iran war powers effort, called it "unbelievable gaslighting" in a video posted to X. It is the second mass-casualty incident of the war to put U.S. targeting under scrutiny. After the February 28 strike on a school in Minab that killed more than 165 people, 41 Senate Democrats led by Van Hollen, Kaine, Schatz and Warren pressed the Pentagon for the intended target, the authorizing officer, the munitions used and the precautions taken — and senators later moved to block Hegseth's travel funds until the report was delivered. Democratic members have asked for the Kuhestak findings; as of September 6 the review had not been sent to Congress. Iran's foreign ministry called the strike a "war crime" and wrote to the U.N.; human rights groups have called for an ICC investigation.

“It's unbelievable gaslighting. This is war. As if Americans can't see what's going on on their own phones, with their own eyes.”
Ro Khanna (D-CA) · Sep 4, 2026

Vance Says the "Goal No. 1" of the Iran War Is Cheap Gas and Iran's Nuclear Program Is Goal No. 2 — Four Days Later Trump Posts That the Number One Goal "Is, and Always Will Be" the Bomb

Nearly six months into the war with Iran, the administration gave two different answers in four days about why the United States is fighting it. On Thursday, August 13, 2026, in a Fox News interview with Will Cain, Vice President JD Vance ranked the war's objectives: "That's goal No. 1: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country," adding that "obviously, goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon." The framing was a shift — the war had been publicly justified since February on nonproliferation grounds — and it came as Washington threatened an indefinite naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and new economic pressure on Tehran, with gas prices rising at home. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the ordering aboard Air Force One the next day and said both goals were equally important to the president. Then on Monday, August 17 — the day the 60-day US–Iran memorandum of understanding expired without a deal — Trump posted on Truth Social at 6:18 a.m.: "The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon," publicly reversing his vice president's ranking without naming him. Congress was in August recess when the exchange played out, and no member of Congress went on record about the contradiction in the days that followed.

“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 17, 2026