On the morning of Election Day, with voters already lining up at polling places across the country, President Donald Trump called into Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” and offered a striking description of the months-long U.S. conflict with Iran: it isn’t really a war.
Speaking with hosts Lawrence Jones, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday, Trump revealed that the United States had struck an Iranian anti-aircraft facility overnight, and then waved it off.
“No anti-aircraft, we took some out last night. Minor attack, wasn’t war.”
He went on to describe the facility, saying Iran had built it over about two months while the U.S. watched. “We hit it last night nicely, not big war,” he said. “You talk about war, this is not really war.”
“War is like you would see in Russia and Ukraine”
Trump repeated the point several times during the call. “This is not really war, we have not shot anything,” he said, adding: “War is like you would see in Russia and Ukraine, that is war.” He also asked, “when was last time we shot anything?” before boasting, “We took over the Hormuz strait, total control.”
Asked what comes next after the election, the president said, “I’m not looking to kill lots of people, if we have to, we have to, but I’m not looking to do that.”
The real toll
The conflict Trump described as “not really war” began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and has now stretched on for more than eight months, including a U.S. naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the Pentagon’s own casualty database, 23 American service members have died during the conflict: 11 killed by enemy fire and 12 in incidents classified as nonhostile, including six airmen killed when a refueling tanker went down in Iraq in March. Another 865 U.S. service members have been wounded by enemy fire, according to the same Pentagon tally, as reported by The Washington Post and Stars and Stripes. Two of those deaths were added to the database just last week.
Those 23 families might describe it differently than the president did on morning television.
On the day voters decide
The remarks came as Americans head to the polls in midterm elections that will decide control of the House and Senate. Democrats need to flip three House seats and four Senate seats to take control of the chambers, according to the Associated Press, which would give them a way to push back on the administration’s agenda, including its handling of the Iran conflict, for the final two years of Trump’s term.
In the same interview, Trump urged voters to keep Republicans in control of Congress, telling the hosts, “We have to keep America great. We’re great now.”
Whatever you call it, Americans have been fighting and dying in this conflict for eight months. If that matters to you, make sure you vote today.