President Donald Trump characterized the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a “military exercise” during a rally in Georgia on Friday, less than a week after the Pentagon heightened its official count of U.S. troops who have died in the conflict against Iran to 21.
Trump made the remark while touting the performance of the stock market and his administration’s record.
“So we have the highest stock market in history. And this is with the war,” Trump said. “But it’s not, it’s just, it’s a military exercise, OK? It’s a military exercise.”
His comment marks the latest instance of Trump characterizing the conflict in terms that stop short of calling it a war. In September, he called it “small potatoes” and argued that it should be considered a military conflict rather than a war.
“A lot of people don’t call it a war,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office at the time. “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing.”
Pressed on that characterization, Trump acknowledged the deaths of 18 American service members at the time and contrasted the toll with the more than 58,000 U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War, a decades-long battle that ended more than 50 years ago.
“We lost 18 souls,” Trump said. “One is too much. But in Vietnam, we lost tens of thousands of people.”
The official number of U.S. military deaths connected to operations against Iran has since risen to 21, while 865 service members have been wounded, according to the Pentagon’s updated casualty data.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and Pentagon for comment Friday evening.
Pentagon Raises Official Death Count
The latest update included two additional noncombat deaths: Major Sorffly Davius, 46, an Army National Guard member who died in Kuwait on March 6, and an unidentified Navy member who died by suicide in September, The Washington Post reported, citing a U.S. official.
The update came after the Post reported in September, citing six U.S. officials, that the number of service members who had died in the Middle East amid the Iran conflict was higher than the Pentagon’s publicly available database indicated.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded at the time by calling that reporting “a complete lie.” The Pentagon later increased the figure reported in its database.
The Pentagon told the Post that it “continues to maintain a steadfast commitment to the transparent, accurate accounting of all Service member casualties.”
The casualty database has separated losses during Operation Epic Fury, the initial phase of fighting that began February 28, from casualties recorded during overseas operations after large-scale hostilities resumed.
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Trump Calling the War ‘Small Potatoes’
Trump’s “military exercise” description follows similar remarks from him and other administration officials questioning whether the hostilities should be described as a war.
When Trump called the conflict “small potatoes” in September, Vice President JD Vance had said a day earlier: “I wouldn’t call it a war.”
“Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance said.
Trump and other senior Republicans have repeatedly resisted describing the conflict as a war. In March, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “We are not at war. We have no intention of being at war,” describing the fighting as a “limited operation” with a mission that was “nearly accomplished.”
Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored a war powers resolution seeking congressional approval for further military action against Iran, responded by accusing Johnson of “Orwellian levels of double speak.”
Trump’s latest characterization comes 18 days before the midterm elections and amid broad public dissatisfaction with the conflict. A Pew Research Center survey released October 8 found that 65 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of U.S. military action against Iran, compared with 33 percent who approved.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins