Trump calls Iran fight 'small potatoes' after 18 US deaths and 6 months of strikes WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump on Friday, September 4, described the prolonged US confrontation with Iran as “small potatoes,” even after acknowledging that 18 American service members have been killed.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said he preferred calling it a “military conflict,” arguing that American strikes have become intermittent and there is currently no fighting. Q: "The Vice President said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war...

If this is not a war what exactly is it?"— CSPAN (@cspan) September 4, 2026 President Trump: "I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us." pic.twitter.com/paaUldoqPV His comments came days after the United States resumed major attacks on Iranian military targets following a lull, with Tehran retaliating against American positions.

The campaign began with US-Israeli strikes on February 28 and has now crossed six months, spanning strikes and operations around a vital shipping route. Trump says strikes are intermittent Trump said American forces are conducting fewer attacks after hitting Iranian radar, aircraft, and other military equipment around the Strait of Hormuz.

He said the US has “very strongly” controlled the waterway and claimed ships and oil are moving through it. Central Command said the September 1 strikes hit Iranian air-defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities, and communications facilities.

More than 50,000 US service members are operating across the Middle East, according to CENTCOM. Eighteen Americans have been killed The president acknowledged the American death toll while comparing it with losses from Vietnam and Afghanistan. "In Vietnam we lost tens of thousands of people.

In Afghanistan we lost a lot. Sleepy Joe Biden lost 13 just by standing at an airport," Trump said. Reports from Thursday said that 18 US military personnel had died and more than 750 had been wounded since the conflict began. Trump said he had met families of those killed at Dover Air Force Base and called the service members “great souls.

” Vice President JD Vance has also said he would not call the confrontation a war. Hormuz has become a battlefield The Strait of Hormuz has become a central military and economic front. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moved through the waterway.

On August 30, US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island after officials said Revolutionary Guard forces were preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines. Trump has since said American minesweepers removed mines from the strait. Commercial traffic remains disrupted, while oil prices have climbed amid fears of further supply interruptions.

Trump says nuclear goal is achieved Trump tied the campaign directly to Iran’s nuclear program, saying the United States had prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He also said American forces could strike Iran’s fortified Pickaxe Mountain site soon if Washington detects renewed activity there.

Reports from Friday said that the site near Natanz contains deeply buried tunnel complexes and remains a potential target. Trump said the operation was necessary to prevent Iran from threatening Israel, Europe and eventually the United States.

Vance Suggests Iran Conflict Could Drag Through Midterms, But At Least We're Not Calling It A War

The White House has returned to its prior talking point that the war against Iran shouldn't be called a war. In earlier stages of the conflict President Trump had applied various monikers that stopped far short, from an "excursion" to a "little detour" to a "stopover" to a mere limited "military operation".

A full five months ago he had proclaimed, "We had to take a little detour. Won’t be long." Various phrases like this have been repeated on a monthly basis, as what the American public was 'assured' was supposed to be a "four to six week-long" operation has blown past the six month mark this week. And yet, the administration is back at it, despite new heavy fire having been exchanged between the US and Iran just in the last few days.

Vice President JD Vance in Thursday remarks rejected the use of the word "war" to describe the conflict with Iran and declined to predict whether it would be over by November's midterm elections. At the moment Republicans hold narrow majorities in Congress, but now must face down voters amid an increasingly unpopular quagmire conflict in the Middle East. Vance in taking questions from reporters sought to reason that, "Right now, there is no active shooting."

JD Vance praises Trump for winning wars, says moments later of Iran that "I wouldn't call it a war" 🥴 pic.twitter.com/2RAoFtwa9M — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 3, 2026 Ironically, it was a mere few hours prior to Vance's comments that Iran had once again fired on US Gulf ally Kuwait, also amid some reports that the UAE was targeted as well. And the day prior to that, US bases in Jordan were rocked by missiles once again, though Jordan said it intercepted most. Tehran claimed high casualties among US forces, while the Pentagon has sought to bat this down, denying that casualties resulted.

The Vice President characterized this latest flare-up as a US "responsibility" to conduct strikes on Iran, given it has been targeting commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Vance also notably didn't want to set "artificial timelines." He responded to a reporter by positing: "But when you ask, 'When will this end?' You're asking me a question like, 'When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?'" Vance said. "I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians."

But the reality remains - the US is still fighting for a return to the pre-war status of the Strait of Hormuz, which had before February 28 been open to all international shipping, and with no 'fee' or 'tax' imposed by Tehran or other regional nations.

Recall too that back in May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio articulated with crystal clarity that the goal of the war in Iran is to restore the Hormuz Strait "back to the way it was" before Trump initiated Operation Epic Fury.

Back to the way it was... --Marco Rubio, May 5, 2026

When Vance went back-and-forth with reporters this week over the war's timeline, November elections, and potential impact on the GOP's future, the White House was already battling some terrible optics.

Increasingly, even mainline normie conservative publications like Newsmax are highlighting how fallen and wounded service members are being politicized at a moment the US can't decide whether it's in a war or not:

The administration in July faced scrutiny after it reclassified four fallen soldiers as well as dozens of wounded troops in its Defense Casualty Analysis System, which Pentagon officials have repeatedly pointed to as the definitive source on the numbers of dead and wounded from the conflict.

Those killed or wounded in fighting after a brief ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran fell apart were classified in a new category called "Overseas Operations" after initially being tallied in the totals from the war.

Also this week there was this alarming and disturbing story in the esteemed Military.com: Widow of Airman Killed in Iran War Claims She Was Denied Death Benefits.

"The Air Force recently told me that because we haven't officially declared war, my kids and I aren't eligible for some benefits," the widow of deceased US Air Force Major John "Alex" Klinner wrote. He died in action over Iraq connected to Iran operations.

On CNBC early this week, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was discussing the Iran war when he asserted: "There haven’t been American deaths. It’s really been an economic choke-out."

According to the Pentagon's own official tally, a total of 18 US service members have been killed in action against Iran to date. Some pundits have long suspected it could be more, and that the Pentagon could indeed continue to be playing political games in terms of how to 'classify' ongoing or potential deaths. Lutnick's words to CNBC were shocking enough for Trump to directly intervene, claiming that he had mistakenly had "Venezuela on his mind"...

President Trump says Howard Lutnick “had Venezuela on his mind” when Lutnick said there have been no American deaths in the Iran war. https://t.co/BTEgyhOIgN pic.twitter.com/WWe6j1NWdq — The American Conservative (@amconmag) September 3, 2026 After all of the above, Trump again took to Truth Social to then berate the media and its critical coverage of the Iran war and Hormuz crisis. He called journalists questioning the White House narrative 'treasonous scum'.

Trump particularly singled out recent and ongoing reports of US missile and interceptor shortages, which he has slammed as false. He went on to claim that the US has "virtually unlimited amounts of Mid to High Grade Ammunition".

Probably the bulk of American voters aren't buying it. Is all of the above evidence of serving and protecting America First? We haven't heard this phrase out of the administration in a long while.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 18:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said the conflict in Iran is “small potatoes” as he defended Vice President JD Vance for asserting that months of on-and-off attacks in the Middle East are not a “war.” Asked during an Oval Office exchange about Vance’s comments made a day earlier, Trump noted that U.

S. strikes on Iran are now “intermittent” and seemed to downplay the intensity of a war that's cost U.S. taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and left 18 U.S. service members dead. “I can understand what he’s saying,” said Trump. He added, “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us.

It's not a big thing." Vance on Thursday, during a White House press briefing, rejected the use of the word “war” to describe the U.S. fighting with Iran and steered clear of predicting that the 6-month-old conflict would be over by November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are trying to hang on to their narrow majorities in Congress.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said after being asked during a White House press briefing about whether the fighting could end before voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 congressional elections. “Right now, there is no active shooting.” Vance’s assertion came even as Iran fired at U.

S. Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for rounds of U.S. strikes on Iran earlier in the week. Trump in Friday's exchange with reporters added that the U.S. death toll in the Iran conflict is relatively lower than some other recent U.

S. wars. The U.S., along with Israel, have only carried out air strikes in the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28, and has not deployed troops into the country. “We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody,” said Trump, referring to the January U.

S. military operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and spirit him to New York City to face federal drug trafficking charges. “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.

” A total of 58,220 members of the U.S. armed forces died during the Vietnam War, according to records from the U.S. National Archives. Pressed by a reporter on describing the conflict as “small potatoes" when 18 U.S. service members have been killed, Trump responded by reiterating his argument that the conflict—one that he said at the outset of the war would last a matter of weeks—has led to the defanging of Iran's nuclear program.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn’t be standing here,” Trump said.

SANAA - A major offensive by Yemen's Houthis to seize control of the gateway to the Red Sea has left more than 120 people dead, sources told AFP Friday, the country's deadliest clashes in years. Fighting erupted on Thursday, after the Iran-backed Houthis launched a ground assault along with rocket and drone attacks near coastal areas, vying for control of the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait at the Red Sea's southern entrance.

Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict, in July became the latest country to be drawn into the Middle East war as the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government. Since then, the Houthis have imposed a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and repeatedly attacked its ships in the Red Sea -- a vital alternative route for oil exports after Iran all but halted Gulf shipments by blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

The rebels are now trying to tighten their hold over the Red Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which they have disrupted with attacks on passing vessels since the Gaza war broke out in 2023. The Houthi offensive aims to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab, military sources told AFP.

The rebels have seized elevated sites overlooking government positions near the Red Sea and the city of Taiz further inland, a military source and a Taiz official told AFP, requesting anonymity. The Houthis could target ships from these elevated positions, they said.

The toll rose to 129 on Friday, according to an AFP tally compiled from several sources, up from an earlier count of 81. A Yemeni military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that 66 of his men had been killed, while medical and military sources close to the Houthis said at least 62 militants had died.

Another medical source said a civilian had also been killed. - Reinforcements sent - Although the Houthis do not control areas bordering Bab al-Mandab, they hold the key port city of Hodeida north of Mokha. "They are going for Bab al-Mandab," said Mohammed al-Basha, of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report.

The Houthis want to control the hills overlooking Bab al-Mandab and Mokha before attacking the coast, a Yemeni official in Aden, the government's base since it was ousted from the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The government has sent reinforcements to Taiz from Aden on Saudi orders, he said.

"The Houthis feel that if they capture Bab al-Mandab or Mokha port they will be in a better position of power to negotiate with the government and the Saudis," Basha added. With Iran's closure of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint has gained increased importance as a transit route for oil from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of crude.

The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea -- and, via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean -- to the Indian Ocean. In July, a fragile truce between the Houthis and the government fell apart after the rebels welcomed an Iranian plane to Sanaa, setting off a spate of attacks.

They later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships and territory.