Donald Trump Confused About Number of Attacks Against U.S. Service Members on His Watch

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On January 28, 2024, three American service members were tragically killed during a drone attack at a U.S. military base in Jordan. Donald Trump and his MAGA allies wasted no time in weaponizing the deaths of American service members, taking to social media to politicize the attack.

• Donald Trump: “This attack would NEVER have happened if I was President, not even a chance – Just like the Iranian-backed Hamas attack on Israel would never have happened, the War in Ukraine would never have happened, and we would right now have Peace throughout the World.” [1/28/2024]

• Governor Ron DeSantis: “Joe Biden has made our troops sitting ducks and he allows our enemies to attack them with impunity. Biden’s weakness is getting our troops killed.” [1/29/2024]

• House Majority Leader Steve Scalise: “This tragedy was avoidable. For years now, Biden has emboldened Iran – sending them billions & tolerating their aggression against our troops.” [1/28/2024]

Trump went so far as to erroneously claim that American troops would have been safer on his watch. His claim is not based in fact. During the four years that Donald Trump served in the Oval Office, 65 service members were killed in hostile action, compared with 16 service members killed during the Biden-Harris Administration to-date.

It’s possible Donald Trump just didn’t know about all of the attacks against U.S. service men and women on his watch because – unlike most Presidents – he spent so little time calling the families of the deceased or even acknowledging their deaths. But here are just a few stark reminders of the tragic deaths of U.S. service members while Donald Trump was Commander in Chief.

• January 2017: In the first month of Trump's presidency, a U.S. Navy SEAL died during a top-secret raid in Yemen.

  • Mr. Trump approved the operation after barely a week in office. But he subsequently tried to distance himself from it and shift blame to others, suggesting that President Obama was to blame for the death. White House spokespeople called the raid a “huge success.”

• May 2017: During a U.S. operation against al-Shabaab in Somalia, a firefight killed one Navy SEAL.

  • Experts questioned the presence of special forces in over 80 countries during this period, saying the situation was “unsustainable.” The Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, went so far as to say, “Rather than a mere ‘break-glass-in-case-of-war’ force, we are now proactively engaged across the battle space.”

• August 2017: In Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two U.S. soldiers while traveling in a convoy near Kandahar.

  • The White House told the widow of one of the service members to expect a call from President Trump, but the call never came.

• August 2017: Ten American sailors died at sea when the USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, collided with an oil tanker east of the Malacca Strait.

  • Following the tragedy, Trump falsely claimed that he had called “virtually” all fallen service members' families during his time in office.

• October 2017: During a joint mission in Niger between the U.S. military and Niger’s army, militants ambushed and killed four U.S. soldiers.

  • Trump did not publicly acknowledge the troops’ deaths for 12 days, only addressing the deaths when a reporter asked about his silence. Trump said he had written letters to the soldiers’ families, and falsely alleged President Obama rarely called family members of soldiers. Later, the mother of a soldier who died in the raid said that President Trump disrespected her son during the condolence call. Trump reportedly told the grieving widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson that her husband “must have known what he signed up for.” The Department of Defense investigated the mission, concluding that “multiple individual and institutional failures” contributed to the soldiers’ deaths.

• January 2019: In Syria, an ISIS suicide bomber killed four Americans, including two U.S. soldiers.

  • The attack took place the same day that Vice President Pence declared that ISIS had “been defeated” and weeks after Trump first declared that the group was no longer a threat. Trump issued a statement, noting: “Our deepest sympathies and love go out to the families of the brave American heroes who were killed today in Syria. We also pray for the soldiers who were wounded in the attack.” However, Trump did not call for any retaliatory action against ISIS. Pence later said that the administration still planned to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

• December 2019: A member of the Royal Saudi Air Force who was a flight student at Naval Air Station Pensacola (Florida) killed three U.S. sailors and severely wounded eight other Americans at the military base. The FBI classified the attack as an act of terror motivated by jihadist ideology and later concluded that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had helped in the planning of the attack.

  • Trump’s response to the shooting was criticized as “insensitive and insufficient,” given his failures to address the threat of terrorism or how the Saudi airman became radicalized. Others noted that his first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

• January 2020: At a military airfield in Kenya, Al-Shabaab carried out an attack that killed one U.S. soldier and two U.S. civilian contractors for the Department of Defense. About 30 to 40 Al-Shabaab fighters launched the attack, which also destroyed six U.S. aircraft.

  • Neither the White House nor President Trump commented publicly on the deaths of three Americans.

• March 2020: Iranian proxy group Kataib Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against the Taji Military base in Iraq, killing two U.S. soldiers.

  • After Trump responded to reporters' questions about what the U.S. would do to respond to the attacks, he said, “We’ll see what the response is.” The Pentagon announced a few days later that the U.S. launched strikes targeting the Iranian-backed group responsible for the attack. Congress, including Republicans, was “largely silent” on these attacks.

Regrettably, Donald Trump’s callous and self-interested views on the U.S. military are part of a long-term pattern. He has called U.S. service members who gave their lives in service to the nation “suckers” and “losers”; complained that appearing next to military amputees did not look good for him; skipped a commemoration for U.S. soldiers and marines because it was raining; and just last October, at a campaign event, declared military officials as "some of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life.” The American people – and most importantly our men and women in uniform – deserve better. 

Published: February 2024