U.S. President Donald Trump minimized the ongoing hostilities with Iran, referring to the months-long engagement as “small potatoes” and endorsing Vice President JD Vance’s choice to avoid labeling the situation a war.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump described the military engagement as intermittent strikes rather than a full-scale war.
His comments came a day after Vice President Vance declined during a White House briefing to call the six-month conflict a “war” or predict if it would wrap up before the November midterm elections.
”I can understand what he’s saying,” Trump said regarding Vance’s position. “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing.”
Vance’s remarks occurred on the same day Iran launched a strike against Kuwait—a key U.S. partner in the Gulf—in retaliation for U.S. strikes conducted earlier in the week. Despite American casualties and costs exceeding $37.5 billion, Vance noted that “there is no active shooting” occurring.
Trump defended his perspective by contrasting the 18 American lives lost in the Iran confrontation with historical troop losses.
”We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody,” Trump said, referring to the January raid that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “And this, we lost 18 people. And, in Vietnam we lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, we lost tens of thousands of people.”
Despite Trump’s figure, official U.S. National Archives data lists U.S. military fatalities during the Vietnam War at 58,220.
When pressed on how he could downplay a conflict that has claimed American lives, Trump pointed to the significant disruption inflicted on Iran’s nuclear developments, reiterating his stance on their capabilities.
”Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn’t be standing here,” Trump stated.