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President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that U.S. service members killed in the Iran war had shared his view that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Republican president made the remarks — seemingly without proof — before heading to Dover Air Force Base to attend the dignified transfer of four soldiers who died in the Middle East conflict over the past week.
“We’re going to Dover…to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually,” Trump told reporters while standing in front of Marine One.
“They said, and all of them said very strongly, ‘We can’t let, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won’t have a nuclear weapon,’” the president continued. “So, we’re going to honor them, and one of the hardest things to do — for me, it’s one of the hardest things to do as a president — but has to be done.”
Among those honored Wednesday were three U.S. service members killed in an Iranian missile strike in Jordan on Friday, along with a fourth soldier killed by an Iranian drone attack in Iraq on Sunday. The Pentagon identified the fallen soldiers as Tyler James Feehan, 25, Isabella Gonzales, 19, Angel S. Rampersad, 28, and Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30.
The president attended the solemn ceremony alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. He was seen saluting as flag-draped caskets were carried past. It was his third time attending a dignified transfer since the war started in late February.
To date, 18 U.S. service members have died in the Middle East conflict, and around 500 more have been wounded, the Pentagon has said. In Iran, at least 3,000 people have been killed, including 168 children, according to NPR, citing the Iranian government.
Trump’s remarks about the deceased soldiers' political views came one day after he appeared to downplay the war’s death toll.
On Tuesday night, he posted a graphic on his Truth Social social media platform which outlined the duration and casualties of wars initiated under previous presidents.
“Vietnam War: 19 years, 58,220 DEAD. Korean War: 3 years, 36,574 DEAD,” it read. The current war was labeled simply as the “Iran Military Conflict,” accompanied by the line “18 DEAD.”
“These are the real facts,” the Republican president wrote. “REPORT THEM!”
The social media post garnered swift pushback from various political leaders. Former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X, “Trump is bragging about killing 18 US soldiers,” while California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wrote: “Treat our brave American soldiers with some respect.”
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Trump insisted that his foreign war has public backing.
“Americans aren’t against the war,” the 80-year-old president told reporters. “A poll just came out. Americans don’t want high gasoline prices, but they’re not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll. Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
It’s not clear which poll Trump was referring to, but multiple recent surveys suggest the conflict is broadly unpopular.
In an aggregation of polls tracked by Nate Silver, a data analyst and founder of FiveThirtyEight, about 58 percent of Americans oppose the war, while roughly 34 percent support it. A Politico survey released Wednesday also found support among Trump’s own base has eroded over the past two months, with just 37 percent now saying the conflict should continue even if it drives up inflation.
The war, which has dragged on for nearly five months, seemed close to ending last month, when Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that called for a 60-day ceasefire and set the stage for further peace talks.
But on June 25, Iran launched a drone at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting retaliatory U.S. strikes. Days later, Trump declared the ceasefire “over,” and the two sides have since traded more strikes. On Tuesday, the U.S. bombarded Iran for the tenth consecutive night.
The Strait of Hormuz — a vital shipping lane that carried 20 percent of the world’s oil before the war — remains at the heart of the dispute. Iran says it should retain some control over the waterway, while the U.S. has argued the MOU required the strait to remain open. Ships traversed the waterway freely before the war, but soon after the initial salvos, traffic fell off a cliff, leading global oil prices to surge.
U.S. officials have recently signaled that diplomacy remains an option. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The problem we're having right now is [Iran is] not serious about talks. If they're serious, we're serious.”
At the same time, the administration is asking for additional funds to support the war effort. During congressional testimony on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked senators for an “urgent” injection of $67 billion into the military. He also estimated that the war has already cost $37.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.
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