Trump’s Pentagon Is Undercounting Troop Casualties in Middle East

The Pentagon appears to be engaged in a “casualty cover-up” of U.S. soldiers killed as a result of Donald Trump’s military onslaught in Iran, a U.S. defense official told The Intercept.

An analysis by The Intercept found that the Department of Defense has used outdated numbers in statements on casualties, resulting in undercounts of how many troops have been wounded or killed.

In a statement sent Monday, CENTCOM said that “approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded” since the launch of Operation Epic Fury. But that number was three days old, and excluded the at least 15 troops wounded in a strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia last week.

CENTCOM would not provide any information about the number of U.S. troops who have been killed since the start of the war, but The Intercept placed the number at around 15. Six soldiers were killed in a strike on a makeshift operations center in Kuwait, and another six died serving aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq. Another soldier was killed on March 1, during an enemy attack on the base in Saudi Arabia.

“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said the defense official, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity.

CENTCOM did not deign to reply to close to a dozen requests for clarification on the casualty count. CENTCOM also refused to provide information on which U.S. bases had been struck by retaliatory attacks from Iran.

“We have nothing for you,” a spokesperson told The Intercept.

Two weeks ago, U.S. CENTCOM spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins confirmed that 200 U.S. service members had been injured since the beginning of the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks. But that number did not appear to include the more than 200 sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford who were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire on March 12. One sailor had to be medically evacuated from the ship, and two others were treated for lacerations.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have reportedly rendered many of 13 U.S. military bases in the Gulf region all but uninhabitable, forcing American military service members to work remotely from hotels and office spaces. Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases caused an estimated $800 million in damage, according to a report by the Center for Strategic & International Studies and a BBC analysis.

Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain compared the president to Jesus Christ during an Easter lunch at the White House Wednesday afternoon.

“Jesus taught so many lessons through his death, burial, and resurrection. He showed us great leadership, great transformation requires great sacrifice. And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life,” White-Cain said with the president standing behind her. “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our lord and savior showed us. But it didn’t end there for him, and it didn’t end there for you.”

White-Cain, who has claimed in the past that the White House is “holy ground” and that “to say no to President Trump would be saying no to God,” went on to connect Trump with the Easter holiday.

“God always had a plan: On the third day, he rose, he defeated evil, he conquered death, hell, and the grave. And because he rose, we all know that we can rise. And sir, because of his resurrection, you rose up,” White-Cain continued. “Because he was victorious, you are victorious. And I believe that the Lord said to tell you this: Because of his victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hands to.”

Trump silently said “thank you” as White-Cain concluded her speech to applause from the room.

The comparison was not well received on social media. Catholic theologian Rich Raho called the remarks “blasphemous.”

“It’s stunning to see a US Bishop standing right there on the stage while Paula White compares Trump to Jesus Christ,” Raho said, pointing out that the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Robert Barron, was standing onstage not far from Trump.

The Reverend Benjamin Cremer also called the comments “blasphemy,” saying, “This is what it sounds like to take Jesus’ name in vain.” Jesuit priest James Martin said that White-Cain crossed a big line.

“Asking God, in a public prayer, to help a political leader make wise decisions, care for the poor, seek peace, foster harmony, and try to include all those who feel excluded? Yes. Comparing a political leader, in a public prayer, to the sinless Son of God during Holy Week? No,” Martin posted on X.

The event was supposed to be closed to the press, but the White House mistakenly uploaded the video to YouTube before removing it Wednesday evening. Do Trump and Republicans agree with Trump being fêted and deified like this?

On Wednesday, representatives for Kristi Noem said that the former homeland security secretary was “devastated” and “blindsided” by the news that her husband Bryon liked to dress in drag as a large-breasted “bimbo” woman in his spare time. On Thursday, one of the models who said Bryon was her client told The Daily Beast there was “no way in hell” his wife didn’t know.

“There is no way in hell that she did not know for that long. He didn’t just wake up two years ago and start talking to cam girls about wanting to be a woman,” webcam performer Lydia Love said. “A lot of the wives know—and either they’re in denial or they have a really secretive partner.”

Love claims that she knew Bryon was married but was unaware of his political status, and he would only show his face momentarily during their sessions. “I’m not saying that he gave me any information like his name or exact location but him showing his face was part of the arousal of ‘getting exposed’—it’s super common,” Love said.

Love said she would instruct Bryon to wear leggings, bend over, and spank himself while he donned a T-shirt stuffed with either balloons or a silicone chest plate.

The news of Bryon’s bimbo fetish, first reported by The Daily Mail, was shocking given his conservative values and proximity to Trump. The strong, God-fearing husband of ICE Barbie telling online models “You turn me into a girl,” wearing leggings, and stuffing massive balloons into his shirt transcends the ironic. And if The Daily Mail
could find this out so easily, how could Noem really just not know for that long?  

“Where my problem is, is that this is a conservative family who publicly shares values that are entirely opposite to what’s happening behind closed doors,” Love continued. “They’re building careers by pushing beliefs that they themselves don’t follow, and it’s extremely common in these circles. I hate the hypocrisy of it all. I like when people stand in what they believe in.”

The British tabloid also reported that Bryon’s messages contained a confession that he knew about the alleged affair between his wife and her former DHS aide Corey Lewandowski, raising even more questions about his fetishes—and Noem’s knowledge of it. When requested for comment, Bryon told The New York Times, “I will at some point. Today is not the day. I appreciate your heart.”

Now that the situation in Iran is thoroughly complex—enough that it could take months or even years to solve, according to some analysts—Donald Trump is attempting to convince the nation that America doesn’t need Iran, the Middle East, or the Strait of Hormuz at all.

Per Trump’s speech Wednesday night, the $25 billion sum spent on the war thus far has instead been in an attempt to “help our allies.”

“We’re now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help,” Trump said. “We don’t have to be there. We don’t need their oil. We don’t need anything they have. But we’re there to help our allies.”

Beyond the nickels and dimes, the war has cost the lives of more than 1,937 people in Iran, including dozens of political leaders, according to Al Jazeera. At least 13 U.S. soldiers have also been killed in the war, and more than 300 have been wounded. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that the conflict would be resolved in the coming weeks, though military officials have indicated that the war could rage for months or even years.

Even before Trump initiated American involvement in the war, Iran—and the Middle East at large—accounted for less than 10 percent of U.S. oil imports. Most of America’s oil, approximately 60 percent of it, comes from Canada.

But the price per barrel has nonetheless shot up, particularly after Iran sealed off the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as the single most important energy transit point in the world. (Oil prices are set globally, not by the individual countries that export it.) Situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the strait funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments.

Most of that oil would head toward China or India. In 2024, the U.S. imported roughly 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the strait, accounting for about 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

On Tuesday, gas prices surpassed $4 a gallon across the nation for the first time since 2022, but Trump’s speech late Wednesday made the matter even worse. Several comments made by the president about potentially escalating the war rattled the markets, sending the price of oil surging by 13 percent.

Trump attributed the preceding increase in oil prices to the “Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.” He then promised to “hit” Iran “extremely hard.”

The White House mistakenly uploaded Donald Trump’s remarks at an Easter lunch, which was supposed to be closed to the press, to YouTube Wednesday, before realizing its error and making the link private.

In the speech, which Business Insider’s Bryan Metzger uploaded to X in full, Trump fantasizes about being a king, admits there’s no money left for health care or childcare because of the war he started, and daydreams about seizing all of Iran’s oil.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up,” Trump said. “It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection.

“I can’t get a ballroom approved. It’s pretty amazing, right?” Trump also said in the speech. “If I was a king, we’d be doing a lot more. I’m doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king.”

Trump went on to lament that it’s “unfortunate” that Americans don’t have the “patience” to take Iran’s oil.

“We could just take their oil. But, you know, I’m not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate. You know, they want to see it end. If we stayed there, I, you know, I’d prefer just to take the oil. We could do it so easily. I would prefer that, but people in the country sort of say, ‘Just win, you’re winning so big. Just win, come home,’” Trump said in the speech.

Trump also mentioned his address to the country to take place later that evening, saying to the audience, “Tonight I’m making a little speech at 9 o’clock and basically I’m gonna tell everybody how great I am.”

The whole speech seems to be an insight into what Trump actually thinks but isn’t willing to say to the broader public. But the American people deserve to know what the president thinks about them and their needs, even if it’s not very much.