Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick issued a formal apology on September 2, one day after he incorrectly asserted that no American service members had died during the ongoing war with Iran. The inaccurate remark occurred during a CNBC interview on September 2, conducted on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Asheville, North Carolina. While discussing global bond yields, Lutnick claimed that the president’s strategy toward Iran was merely an "economic choke-out" and stated, "the way the president is playing Iran, there haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic choke-out, which the administration is now executing more broadly."
Official data from the Defense Department’s war casualty database contradicts this claim, indicating that 18 U.S. service members have died and more than 750 have been wounded since President Donald Trump launched the war against Iran on February 28. Following the statement, Lutnick took to the social media platform X to offer an apology to the families of the service members. He explained that he had misspoken while conflating the Iran conflict with a separate U.S. military operation in January involving the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during which no U.S. troops were killed, though seven were injured.
"I misspoke. 18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss," Lutnick wrote in his post. He further noted that as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, he remains deeply thankful for the sacrifices made by those who serve the country. President Donald Trump also addressed the controversy on Truth Social, stating, "Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!"
