Trump dismisses Iran conflict as 'small potatoes,' echoing Vance's 'not a war' stance

Former President Donald Trump on Friday characterized the ongoing military engagement with Iran as "small potatoes," aligning with Vice President JD Vance's recent assertion that the months-long conflict in the Middle East does not constitute a "war." Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump echoed Vance's sentiment, stating that U.S. strikes on Iran are now "intermittent" and that "a lot of people don't call it a war." This perspective comes despite the significant human and financial costs associated with the conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of 18 U.S. service members and incurred expenses exceeding $37.5 billion for U.S. taxpayers. Trump elaborated on his view, explaining, "I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing."

Vice President JD Vance had articulated a similar stance during a White House press briefing the previous day, Thursday. Vance explicitly rejected the use of the term "war" to describe the U.S. military actions against Iran. He also avoided making predictions about the conflict's resolution before the November midterm elections, a critical period for Republicans aiming to retain their narrow majorities in Congress. Vance stated, "I wouldn't call it a war," and further justified this by noting, "Right now, there is no active shooting." This declaration was made even as Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Kuwait, a U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, on Thursday, following a series of U.S. airstrikes against Iranian targets earlier in the week. The conflict, which began on February 28, has seen both the U.S. and Israel limit their operations to airstrikes, without deploying ground troops into Iran.

In his remarks, Trump sought to contextualize the U.S. death toll in the Iran conflict by drawing comparisons to other significant U.S. military operations. He highlighted the January operation in Venezuela, aimed at apprehending former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, stating, "We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody." In contrast, the 18 U.S. fatalities in the Iran conflict were presented as a relatively low number when compared to historical conflicts. Trump pointed to the Vietnam War, where he stated "we lost 100,000 people," and other past wars that resulted in "tens of thousands of people" killed. The Vietnam War, a protracted conflict from 1955 to 1975, famously claimed the lives of 58,220 U.S. service members.