Trump gets mashed over calling Iran war “small potatoes”

Donald Trump has put the Iran war on a diet. Six months, 18 dead American service members, hundreds wounded, global economic pain and billions of dollars later, the US president called the conflict “small potatoes.”

Asked in the Oval Office whether he agreed with Vice President JD Vance that the fighting should not be called a war, Trump said he preferred “military conflict.” He described it as intermittent and pointed to pauses in active combat. “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” he said.

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I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing.

ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott challenged him, saying the conflict did not feel small to families who had lost service members or to troops facing record deployments. Trump responded by reaching for his familiar measuring stick: Vietnam. He asked how long the United States had remained there and compared the Iran conflict with the tens of thousands of Americans killed in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump said any American death was too many, but argued that the toll in Iran was far lower.

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It certainly doesn't feel like small potatoes

The president also claimed that Washington had stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in about five months, severely damaged its military capabilities and established control over the Strait of Hormuz. But the political cost may be harder to contain. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Friday found that only 25% of Americans considered the war worthwhile. An earlier University of Massachusetts Amherst poll found that more than two-thirds disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while four in five said it had increased food and gasoline prices.

With Republicans defending narrow congressional majorities in the midterm elections, Trump’s aides are trying to prevent the conflict from becoming an electoral burden. Critics say calling it “small potatoes” trivializes the sacrifices of service members and the economic pressure on households. Some social media users also accused Trump of disrespecting fallen troops, although the article notes that some posts misrepresented his remarks as directly calling fallen soldiers “small potatoes.”

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How long were we in Vietnam?