Reporter Pushes Back After Trump Calls Iran War ‘Small Potatoes For Us’

President Donald Trump called the conflict with Iran “small potatoes” for the United States, prompting a reporter to push back with the death toll numbers.

During an executive order signing in the Oval Office Friday, a reporter asked, “The vice president said yesterday he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war, but the U.S. resumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks. Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly, is it?

“I’ll tell you what, a lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump answered. “We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody, and in this we lost 18 people, and in Vietnam you lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts you lost tens of thousands of people.”

“I would say that it’s intermittent,” Trump said. “You know, we do intermittent strikes, so I heard what he said, and it was interesting because I think that there is a lot of truth. We are not fighting right now. There is no fighting. We are taking on a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait. We control it very strongly.”

Trump continued:

TRUMP: We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait. We took out their radar, as you know. You know that very well. We took out some aircraft. We took out some other things that protect, for them used to protect the Hormuz Strait when they had it under very tight control, but now we control it and we are taking out — last night we took a lot of boats. A lot of ships come through, and they come through every day, so I can understand what he is saying. It is a military conflict, but it is very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war.

REPORTER: It certainly doesn’t feel like small potatoes. Eighteen service members have died. We’re seeing record-long deployments. You initially said this would last —

TRUMP: Record long? Why is it record-long?

REPORTER: The 82nd airborn —

TRUMP: How long were we in Vietnam? How long were we in Vietnam?

REPORTER: We’re seeing record — The U.S. Abraham Lincoln —

TRUMP: No, How long were we in Vietnam? We’re at five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They are not going to have a nuclear weapon. That’s what we did. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably would not be standing here very long.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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