Small potatoes: Trump downplays Iran conflict, backs Vance's 'not a war' claim

Trump defended JD Vance's refusal to call Iran fighting a war during an Oval Office exchange. His remarks further downplayed a six-month conflict that has cost billions and killed 18 US service members.

In Short

• Trump says US strikes on Iran had become intermittent in recent weeks
• The conflict has cost US taxpayers over $37.5 billion so far
• Vice President JD Vance said there was no active shooting

President Donald Trump on Friday called the conflict in Iran “small potatoes” and defended Vice President JD Vance’s assertion that months of on-and-off attacks in the Middle East do not amount to a “war.”

Asked during an Oval Office exchange about Vance’s comments from a day earlier, Trump said US strikes on Iran had become “intermittent” and appeared to downplay the intensity of a conflict that has cost US taxpayers more than $37.5 billion and left 18 US service members dead.

“I can understand what he’s saying,” Trump said. 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 US fighting with Iran. He also avoided predicting whether the six-month-old conflict would end before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans are seeking to retain their narrow majorities in Congress.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said when asked during the briefing whether the fighting could end before voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 congressional elections. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”

Vance made the assertion even as Iran fired at US Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for rounds of US strikes on Iran earlier in the week.

During Friday’s exchange with reporters, Trump also said the US death toll in the Iran conflict remained relatively low compared with some other recent US wars. The US and Israel have carried out only air strikes in the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28, and the US has not deployed troops into Iran.

“We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody,” Trump said, referring to the January US military operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and take 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 US armed forces died during the Vietnam War, according to records from the US National Archives.

When a reporter pressed Trump on calling the conflict “small potatoes” despite the deaths of 18 US service members, Trump reiterated his argument that the conflict had defanged Iran’s nuclear program. He had said at the outset of the war that it would last a matter of weeks.

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