Lutnick apologizes for asserting that there ‘haven’t been American deaths’ from the Iran war

By Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly apologized on Thursday after falsely asserting that no Americans had died during the Trump administration’s war with Iran.

Lutnick made the claim while defending the war in an interview on CNBC, saying that “the way the president is playing Iran, right, there haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic chokeout which the administration is now executing more broadly, and I think it’ll be very effective.”

In fact, 18 US service members have died since the US first attacked Iran in February. Hundreds more have been wounded.

In a Thursday morning post on X, Lutnick said he “misspoke” and had confused the six-month war in Iran with the administration’s prior hours-long invasion of Venezuela.

“While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke,” he wrote. “I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died.”

Lutnick also addressed the families of the killed service members, writing that “my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss.”

The remarks, which Lutnick made Wednesday morning as part of a broader interview on technology and trade issues, had only gained limited public attention in the immediate aftermath. But President Donald Trump sought to preemptively downplay the matter early Thursday, writing in a Truth Social post that “Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!”

Lutnick issued his public apology roughly 45 minutes later.

The administration has faced scrutiny over how it has disclosed and discussed those killed and injured in the Iran war, particularly after four deaths and dozens of injuries disappeared from the totals listed on a Defense Department website in July. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously been critical of media coverage about service member deaths, saying at a March news conference that, “When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.