Trump calls Iran conflict 'small potatoes', says he agrees with Vance that it's not 'war' — SkimNews
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- Trump dismissed the Iran conflict as "small potatoes" on Friday and backed Vance's earlier assertion that months of U.S. fighting in West Asia doesn't qualify as a "war."
- Vance told reporters Thursday he "wouldn't call it a war" and said "right now, there is no active shooting," while declining to predict the conflict would end before the November 3 midterm elections.
- The six-month conflict has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and killed 18 U.S. service members, figures Trump cited as evidence the toll is manageable.
- Trump compared the toll to the Vietnam War's 58,220 U.S. military deaths and to the January Venezuela operation that ousted Nicolás Maduro, in which "we lost nobody."
- Iran fired at U.S. Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for U.S. strikes earlier in the week — directly undercutting Vance's "no active shooting" claim.
- The U.S. and Israel have only carried out air strikes since the conflict began February 28, with no ground troops deployed into Iran.
- Trump defended the operation by claiming it has defanged Iran's nuclear program, warning "Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did you probably wouldn't be standing here."
Why it matters: With Republicans defending narrow congressional majorities in November, Trump and Vance are rhetorically shrinking a war that has killed 18 Americans and cost $37.5 billion — even as Iran struck Kuwait the same day Vance declared "no active shooting," and the administration drafts post-war plans while weighing escalation at Iran's Pickaxe nuclear site.
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