President Donald Trump described the ongoing U.S. military conflict with Iran as “small potatoes” during an Oval Office exchange on Friday, defending Vice President JD Vance’s assertion that months of intermittent strikes do not constitute a full-scale war. According to The Associated Press, the six-month-old campaign has cost taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and resulted in the deaths of 18 U.S. service members.
Vance Defends Characterization Amid Middle East Retaliation
Vice President JD Vance rejected the term “war” during a White House press briefing on Thursday, arguing that the situation lacks active ground combat. According to The Associated Press, Vance declined to predict whether the operations would conclude before the November 3 midterm elections, where Republicans are fighting to protect slim congressional majorities. “Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance told reporters.
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That characterization arrived as regional tensions escalated. Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday in direct retaliation for a fresh wave of U.S. strikes earlier in the week. Despite the ongoing exchanges, Trump echoed Vance’s terminology during Friday’s remarks in the Oval Office.
“I can understand what he’s saying,” Trump told reporters, as reported by The Associated Press. “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing.”
Comparing Historical U.S. Military Casualties
Trump defended the relatively low casualty rate of the current campaign by contrasting it with historical conflicts. According to The Associated Press, the U.S. and Israel have limited their operations to airstrikes since the current engagement began on February 28, deploying no ground troops into Iran.
“We did Venezuela and we did this,” Trump said, referencing the January military operation to detain former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and transport him to New York on federal drug trafficking charges. “In Venezuela, we lost nobody. And this, we lost 18 people. And, in Vietnam we lost 100,000 people.”
U.S. National Archives records place the actual American death toll during the Vietnam War at 58,220 members of the armed forces.
Nuclear Program Remains Primary Objective
Challenged by reporters over minimizing a conflict that has claimed 18 American lives, Trump pointed to the strategic objective of degrading Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. According to The Associated Press, Trump initially claimed when hostilities commenced that the campaign would last only a matter of weeks.
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“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn’t be standing here,” Trump said on Friday.
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