Donald J. Trump told reporters and the world a story of speaking with the families of fallen troops, claiming — implausibly — that every single one of them made a point of telling him the U.S. can't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
Of course, this obvious lie can't be fact-checked since dead men tell no tales, except apparently to Trump, about Iran. From beyond the grave, perhaps? Trump's version of events has grieving military families uniformly parroting his Iran talking points back to him, which is exactly as convenient as it sounds for the war the President chose to launch.
"Some of you are going with us to honor our heroes, and they are, indeed, great heroes, actually," Trump said. "They said, and all of them said very strongly, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon."
"They won't have a nuclear weapon," he added. "So we're going to honor them."
The Pentagon's official count now stands at 18 US service members killed since the war with Iran began in late February, with roughly 427 wounded — and that's before factoring in a service member still listed as missing after a July attack in Jordan.
Five months into the war, the body count keeps climbing: the latest additions are two soldiers killed in Jordan last week, now identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, plus an explosive ordnance disposal soldier killed in Iraq the following day.
Trump's war with Iran has already cost at least 17 American service members their lives, a toll that's ticked up steadily even as the administration has had trouble articulating any endgame.
And we're sure all of the fallen military members told him personally that Iran can't be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I'm sure they also said they wanted the SAVE Act to pass, right?
