Trump falsely claims ‘nobody’s been killed’ in Iran war ‘in the last five months

Washington Post-Nov13th2026

Maegan Vazquez

President Donald Trump defended the U.S. war against Iran in a pair of interviews that aired Thursday evening, falsely claimed that no American troops had been killed in the past five months and said he hasn’t escalated the conflict at the request of other countries in the Middle East.

Trump told “The Hugh Hewitt Show” that “nobody’s been killed in the last five months.”

“We haven’t lost a soldier in five months, and we control the Gulf,” he said.

The Pentagon has reported the deaths of 23 deaths American service members in the Middle East during the war with Iran, 11 deaths from enemy fire and 12 in nonhostile circumstances. In July, three soldiers died in an enemy attack on an air base in Jordan, another died during a controlled drone detonation at an air base in Iraq and a Navy captain died during an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea.

In a separate interview, Trump told Stephen A. Smith that he could end the war swiftly but has not because neighboring countries have asked him not to escalate the conflict. He said the countries were “tremendous investors” in the United States and they “would rather have me do it the way I’m doing it now.”

“I could end it immediately, but at the request of the nations that I’m looking to protect, we are doing it a little bit longer way,” Trump said. “All of them would much prefer the waiting period. … So, they’ve asked me to do that. … I’m not sure I agree with it.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/11/13/trump-falsely-claims-nobodys-been-killed-iran-war-last-five-months/