Democrats slam Trump after president admits US casualties might be ‘quite a bit higher’ as Iran battle escalates | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump has attracted robust criticism from Democrats over his response to the deaths of three American servicemembers within the opening levels of the assault on Iran.

The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes towards the aspiring nuclear state Saturday morning as a part of Operation Epic Fury, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and bringing a wave of retaliatory strikes from Tehran towards different Gulf nations.

After U.S. Central Command introduced that three servicemembers had been killed and 5 others severely wounded by shrapnel Sunday, Trump put out a video on his Truth Social platform wherein he known as the useless “true American patriots” and expressed “our immense love and eternal gratitude” to their households.

But he continued by saying, “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is. [There will] likely be more but we’ll do everything possible where that won’t be the case.”

Subsequently chatting with The New York Times in a quick telephone interview, the president addressed the casualties once more and mentioned: “Three is three too many as far as I’m concerned. If you look at projections, they do projections, it, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that. We expect casualties.”

Since then, Kuwait has introduced that “several” U.S. fighter jets have crashed over its airspace, elevating the potential for additional American fight deaths.

Trump’s angle drew an indignant response from Democrats, together with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who took to X (Twitter) to match his feedback unfavorably with previous remarks made by Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan about troopers making the last word sacrifice for his or her nation.

Also taking to X was Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, herself a veteran, who wrote: “‘That’s the way it is,’ says the five-time draft dodger to our military families who fear their loved one in uniform could be next,” she wrote, alluding to Trump’s 5 draft deferments from the Vietnam War. “What a disgrace.”

Another former soldier, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, appeared on CNN’s Out Front with Erin Burnett to say: “I’m absolutely furious, because Donald Trump is very cavalier with other people’s lives.

“He loves pounding his chest and acting tough and talking about the costs of war, but he knows nothing about the cost of war.”

New York Rep. Pat Ryan, likewise an Iraq War combatant, additionally guested on CNN Sunday and informed Kaitlan Collins that he was notably incensed by Trump’s refusal to take questions on the U.S. casualties which have occurred thus far, a element revealed by the community’s White House correspondent Kristen Holmes on the identical present.

“For the president to not answer those questions, to have nothing to say to those family members, is pathetic,” mentioned Ryan.

“It’s pathetic. And it’s because he doesn’t have answers. There’s not a plan here, or if there is, he’s not sharing it with the American people.

“This certainly rhymes with past ill-conceived, half-baked regime change wars that sound good until they start, and then all of a sudden, no one knows what the heck is going on, and it’s young American men and women that pay the price. And that p***es me off.”

During his quick NOW interview, Trump mentioned the Pentagon expects to maintain the assault on Iran for “four to five weeks” and mentioned the U.S. navy wouldn’t discover it tough to take care of the current depth of its bombing marketing campaign.

“We have tremendous amounts of ammunition,” he mentioned. “You know, we have ammunition stored all over the world in different countries.”

The president mentioned he had “three very good choices” in thoughts for Iran’s subsequent chief however declined to call them, citing January’s operation to take away Nicolas Maduro from energy in Venezuela as his thought of a profitable regime change operation.

“What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” he mentioned. “Everybody’s kept their job except for two people.”

He additional urged the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to put down their weapons and mentioned of the prospect of the Iranian public mounting an rebellion to overthrow the federal government in Tehran: “That’s going to be up to them about whether or not they do. They’ve been talking about it for years so now they’ll obviously have an opportunity.

“The country has been very substantially weakened, to put it mildly.”