Former President Trump on Tuesday dismissed injuries sustained by U.S. troops during a 2020 Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi base as he argued he has been tougher than the Biden administration on Tehran.
Trump fielded questions from reporters during a campaign stop in Milwaukee and was asked by one journalist whether he should have responded more strongly to Iran after it launched missiles at U.S. forces stationed at a base in Iraq in 2020, leaving dozens with traumatic brain injuries.
“So first of all, injured. What does injured mean? Injured means — you mean because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort,” Trump said.
“So just so you understand, there was nobody ever tougher on Iraq,” Trump continued, saying Iraq instead of Iran. “When you say not tough, they had no money. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for Hezbollah. And when we hit them, they hit us. And they called us, and they said ‘We’re going to shoot at your fort but we’re not going to hit it.’
“And if you were a truthful reporter, which you’re not, you would tell the following: None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort,” he added. “They all hit outside, and there was nobody hurt other than the sound was loud and some people said that hurt, and I accept that.”
More than 100 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in January 2020 as a result of an Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi base, according to Defense officials.
The missile strike on the Iraqi airbase was in retaliation to Trump ordering the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in early January 2020.
Trump similarly downplayed the injuries at the time, saying he had “heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things.”
The former president spent part of his campaign swing through Wisconsin on Tuesday criticizing the Biden administration’s foreign policy in the wake of Iranian missile attacks against Israel.
Trump, who withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Tehran during his first term, told reporters in Milwaukee there was “nobody ever tougher on Iran” than he was.
