President Donald Trump has acknowledged that Americans will likely die in his new military campaign against Iran, telling reporters that casualties “often happen in war” as U.S. forces launch what the administration calls “major combat operations” across the Middle East.
The 79-year-old president announced the strikes in a video posted to Truth Social early Saturday morning, wearing a white “USA” trucker hat as he declared that American forces plan to “raze their missile industry to the ground” and “annihilate their navy.” The announcement marks a dramatic reversal for a leader who campaigned on ending foreign conflicts.
“I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars,” Trump said in his November 2024 victory speech, promising to focus national resources on domestic priorities rather than foreign entanglements.
Now six days into what appears to be a widening conflict, the president has confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes. Despite that high-profile target, Trump said “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue in Iran “as long as necessary.”
When asked by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl about what happens next, Trump dismissed the concern entirely. “Forget about ‘next,'” the president said, adding: “I hope you are impressed. How do you like the performance? I mean, Venezuela is obvious. This might be even better. How do you like the performance?”
CNN’s chief political correspondent Dana Bash told News Central that she spoke with President Donald Trump for five minutes about the conflict in Iran, during which he shifted the topic to Cuba on his own.
According to Bash, Trump remarked that the U.S. military is performing extremely well — “better than anybody could have dreamed.” She added that he claimed to have rebuilt the military during his first term and is now utilizing it in his second.
“And then he quickly turned to Cuba. He said, without her asking him, “Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, by the way, that Cuba is going to fall. They want to make a deal so badly.’”
The casual tone contrasts sharply with mounting casualties. Within hours of the initial U.S. attack, explosions were reported across Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq, and Jordan—all home to major American military installations. Iranian retaliation has already proven deadly: six American service members were killed when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations center at a port in Kuwait.
Trump acknowledged the human cost in his Saturday video statement, warning that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost” and adding: “That often happens in war.”
When Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa pressed the president on whether Americans should worry about retaliatory attacks at home, Trump offered a troubling response. “I guess,” he said. “But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
The conflict has already seen 18 U.S. service members seriously wounded and represents America’s first new full-scale war since 2003. Historical precedents loom large: 110 service members suffered traumatic brain injuries when Iran struck Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq following Trump’s assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. An estimated 7,000 American troops died in previous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The war contradicts explicit campaign promises Trump made to voters in 2024 about reducing American military involvement abroad. This marks his second attack on Iran after targeted strikes against the country’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, and follows military actions in Nigeria on Christmas Day 2025 and the January invasion of Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has also threatened military action against Panama, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland—an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. The escalating military posture comes after Trump’s disappointment at being passed over for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
In a January letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump wrote that “considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
The White House has released videos on social media combining real combat footage with clips from video games and action movies featuring Tom Cruise, treating the war as entertainment. One video carried the caption “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY.”
Narges Bajoghli, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies Iran, told Democracy Now! that Iran appears prepared for a “war of attrition” against what she called “the biggest military superpower in world history.” The reported death toll in Iran has surpassed 1,000, including many children.
Public opinion on American military engagement has shifted in recent years, with a 2024 survey showing only 56% of Americans believed the U.S. should take an active role in world affairs. Trump’s new war may test those attitudes as forces aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford continue operations, with no indication the president plans to deploy ground troops in what remains primarily an air-and-sea campaign.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance have publicly supported the president’s decision, while political observers note the stark contrast between Trump’s “America First” campaign messaging and the expanding military commitments of his second term.