President Donald Trump took a break from golfing Saturday to speak on the record for the first time about the deaths of two soldiers in an Iranian missile strike on a base in Jordan on Friday.
NewsNation correspondent Hannah Brandt said she had called Trump specifically to ask him about the soldiers, who were killed in action while defending against an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack. A third soldier is also missing, and four more were injured.
“It’s a very sad thing. We hate to see it happen,” the president told her, before quickly pivoting to his favorite Iran talking point. “But then the president told me, ‘It’s in service to our country… we’re never, they’re never going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.’”
“I quickly asked him what he thought of Iran also saying that it no longer plans to follow that Memorandum of Understanding, with the president telling me, ‘I couldn’t care less,’” Brandt said.
The deaths are the first American combat casualties since early in the war, when an Iranian drone strike killed six U.S. reservists in Kuwait, and one soldier died when Iran attacked a base in Saudi Arabia.
Six more soldiers died in Iraq when a refueling plane crashed.
Earlier this month, a helicopter pilot died when his aircraft crashed into the Arabian Sea. There was no indication that he had taken enemy fire.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted a notice on X from U.S. Central Command giving details of the soldiers’ deaths, along with additional information about the four injured and one missing soldier.
“Godspeed, heroes,” Hegseth wrote. “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”
The fighting has only escalated since the attack, with Central Command announcing a new offensive on X Saturday evening.
“U.S. forces began launching new airstrikes against Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” the post said.
“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night.”
Both Hegseth and Trump have repeatedly claimed that previous U.S. strikes have completely destroyed the Iranian military and its ability to fight back.
Iran has said it will no longer be bound by the terms of the ceasefire, signaling a new offensive stretch after months of uneasy restraint.
The war was hastily launched by Trump, in coordination with Israel and with Hegseth’s backing, on Feb. 28. But Congress wasn’t consulted, as is required, so it has passed a resolution directing Trump to either seek approval from Congress for the war or end it.
