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Trump downplays US-Iran conflict as 'small potatoes' despite 18 US deaths
Confirmed
In Short: US President Donald Trump has dismissed the ongoing conflict with Iran as 'small potatoes,' despite 18 US service members losing their lives and increased global energy prices.
Speaking on Friday, Trump minimized the conflict, comparing it to other US military operations. 'It’s not a big thing,' he said, adding that the fighting is now 'intermittent.' In June, both chambers of Congress passed a war powers resolution, urging Trump to either halt the campaign or seek congressional authorization.
Vice President JD Vance also downplayed the conflict, stating that he wouldn't call it a 'war,' and that the U.S. is not currently engaged in active combat.
The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a post-war Middle East strategy to contain Iran and expand the Abraham Accords.
Background
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and historically known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south.
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- On Friday, Trump said the conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of 18 US service members and a spike in global energy prices, is “small potatoes”.
- Trump calls Iran conflict 'small potatoes' and downplays its severity.
- US may attack Iran's Pickaxe Mountain soon, warns Trump Türkiye is working to end US-Iran war, Erdogan tells UAE leader Qatar rejects Iran's claim strikes target only US bases Iran used geography to impose heavy costs at relatively low military expense: Japan Iran has said that it could conduct "preemptive" attacks on perceived threats.
- President Donald Trump has said that the US war on Iran was "small potatoes" for the United States, in his administration's latest bid to play down the conflict ahead of crucial midterm elections.
- "A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us," Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office when asked about Vance's remarks.
- US President Donald Trump told reporters that the United States may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain very soon.
- The strategy remains in the early drafting stage and is intended to shape US policy after the Iran war and during the final two years of Trump’s term, the report said, adding that planning is underway at both senior political and interagency levels.
- Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed," Trump wrote early Thursday. "18 people were killed in Iran!