Trump Team Flips Out Over Report It’s Hiding Iran War Casualties

The Trump administration has been hiding military injuries from its reports on the Iran war.

Last week, Iran carried out three strikes against U.S. military personnel in Jordan, wounding dozens and damaging multiple helicopters, The New York Times reports. But the Department of Defense did not disclose those attacks to the public.

U.S. Central Command is not required to release information about injured soldiers, a U.S. military official told the Times, noting that releasing such information could help Iran refine its attacks. On Saturday, four injured soldiers were taken to hospitals in Jordan and then discharged, according to Central Command, but their statement did not mention any of the service members injured in the country last week.

The DoD angrily attacked the Times Monday, calling its report “baseless and malicious accusations.”

“Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action. Disgusting behavior, even for the New York Times,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on X. “In fact, U.S. military casualty information is publicly available and regularly updated online on the Defense Casualty Analysis System for everyone, including the media, to review.”

Meanwhile, the American death toll in the war is rising. Two American service members were killed in an Iranian attack in Jordan on Friday, while a third was killed in an Iranian attack in northern Iraq the next day. Since the war began on February 28, 17 American soldiers have been killed, and over 400 have been wounded.

Operational security is a convenient excuse for setbacks in a war that has not gone as well as President Trump promised. Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz has hurt the U.S. and world economies and sent gas prices soaring. The civilian death toll in Iran continues to climb, with Trump refusing to take responsibility for egregious strikes, such as one that hit a school in Minab, Iran, on the first day of the war.

It isn’t surprising that this administration is trying to diminish and hide American casualties, but the real reason is that full transparency would make this already unpopular war even more politically toxic for Trump and his party.

This story has been updated.

President Trump announced plans to “max out” the security on the $400 million luxury jumbo jet gifted to him by the Qatari royal family, suggesting that insufficient security  was indeed the reason he ditched it so abruptly earlier this month. 

“Mr. President, this plane does not have anti-missile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?” a reporter asked Trump Sunday as he was preparing to board following the FIFA men’s World Cup final. 

“Well, it has—it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out,” Trump replied. “It’ll take about a month.” 

While it’s unclear what exactly the president means by “maxed out,” and whether his timeline is accurate, his answer confirms pretty much what every expert was saying about the jet from the moment he got it—that it would take time and lots of money to bring it to the security standards of Air Force One. Yet when Trump refused to fly on the jet following the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, he told the media that it was because U.S. soldiers at a European base really needed to see it for some reason. This was his story, even though it was reported that the Secret Service advised him to take the old Air Force One as the war with Iran resumed. 

This jet—a questionable gift at best, an obvious bribe at worst—has already cost U.S. taxpayers $400 million. Trump plans to move it to his presidential library in 2029. 

Spain’s World Cup–winning team have made it abundantly clear that they did not want Donald Trump in their victory photos.

The official account for Spain’s national football league shared an altered image of the country’s celebration in New Jersey Sunday, snipping the U.S. president out of photos after he refused to leave the dais. The FIFA World Cup account also cropped Trump out of the shot, leaving only the president’s shoulder in view.

Trump handed the World Cup trophy to Spain’s team alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after they beat Argentina 1-0. But the U.S. president then refused to leave the picture, apparently trying to run out the clock before the traditional trophy lift by chatting with the players as he jockeyed for a prime position in front of the group.

Spain’s team, however, was not having it. Video footage of the historic celebration captured several players politely pushing Trump away as they prepared for their official photograph.

Yet Trump stayed anyway, lingering beside the team even after repeated attempts by Infantino to pull him off the stage. He finally exited only after the team lifted its trophy and blew the confetti cannons in a glaring attempt to ensure he’d be included in the photograph.

His insistence on remaining in frame followed weeks of scathing remarks by Trump against Spain and its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, over NATO defense spending. Trump has referred to Spain as “hopeless,” derided its people as “bad,” and also threatened to “cut off all trade” with the longtime U.S. ally as he ramped up his NATO disputes. In the months prior to that, he also raged against Spain after it refused to let the U.S. military use Spanish bases to bomb Iran.

None of that hostility was on display after the game, however—at least publicly. Back at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said he had “spoken to Spain” and “congratulated them on having a great team.” He also noted that he had “no tension” with the country’s leadership.

“I have no tension with anybody,” Trump remarked cavalierly.

Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to grant ICE total impunity after a slew of deadly incidents involving federal immigration agents.

Last week, FBI agents received notice that their agency would no longer investigate claims of assault against immigration agents, sources told The New York Times.

Instead of involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would likely be responsible for investigating confrontations, according to the agency’s guidance.

The purpose of these investigations is to determine whether federal immigration agents were in fact attacked, but their findings can also be used to prosecute DHS agents who are involved in violent confrontations.

Trump administration officials have insisted that anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with immigration agents should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In multiple violent confrontations between agents and civilians, both fatal and not, the government has been quick to claim that the agents felt threatened.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security denied that any such change had been made.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the agencies told the Times in a joint statement. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Already, hundreds of criminal cases alleging assault against immigration officers have completely fallen apart. If implemented, this guidance would be particularly concerning considering how many lies immigration officials have told about their violent confrontations with protesters and immigrants.

Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The next day, a man in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while being chased by ICE.

The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans are threatening retaliation against Canada for the wildfires ravaging Ontario, smoke from which has caused hazardous air quality in a significant swath of the United States this week.

On Truth Social Friday afternoon, the president accused Canada of “Willful Negligence,” vowing to add billions of dollars to existing tariffs against Canada to make up for the wildfires’ cost to the U.S.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” the president wrote, “and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” Trump vowed to contact Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump was joining a growing chorus of angry Republicans. Earlier Friday, GOP Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio proposed a bill to slap Canada with sanctions “in response to transboundary wildfire smoke affecting the United States,” which he called an “atrocity.” Before that, three Republican congressmen representing Michigan penned a letter warning Carney to take “immediate action.”

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada who also hails from Michigan, has sung a more temperate tune. On Wednesday, he described the more than 800 ongoing Canadian wildfires as “a shared challenge” that “demands a shared response.”

“I commend the outstanding cooperation between the United States and Canada as we confront these fires together,” Hoekstra said in a statement. “Our two governments are monitoring and sharing information in real time—coordination that reflects our partnership at its best.… This challenge knows no borders.”

Some obvious wrinkles plague MAGA’s blame-Canada narrative: A primary driver of the devastating wildfires is climate change, which Trump dismisses as a “con job.” Research shows that the United States is culpable for $10 trillion in climate damages globally since 1990. And Trump has systematically rolled back federal clean air protections while in office.