Lutnick apologizes for asserting that there ‘haven’t been American deaths’ from the Iran war

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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly apologized on Thursday after falsely asserting that no Americans had died during the Trump administration’s war with Iran .

Lutnick made the claim while defending the war in an interview on CNBC, saying that “the way the president is playing Iran, right, there haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic chokeout which the administration is now executing more broadly, and I think it’ll be very effective.”

In fact, 18 US service members have died since the US first attacked Iran in February. Hundreds more have been wounded .

In a Thursday morning post on X, Lutnick said he “misspoke” and had confused the six-month war in Iran with the administration’s prior hours-long invasion of Venezuela.

“While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke,” he wrote. “I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died.”

Lutnick also addressed the families of the killed service members, writing that “my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss.”

The remarks, which Lutnick made Wednesday morning as part of a broader interview on technology and trade issues, had only gained limited public attention in the immediate aftermath. But President Donald Trump sought to preemptively downplay the matter early Thursday, writing in a Truth Social post that “Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!”

Lutnick issued his public apology roughly 45 minutes later.

The administration has faced scrutiny over how it has disclosed and discussed those killed and injured in the Iran war , particularly after four deaths and dozens of injuries disappeared from the totals listed on a Defense Department website in July. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously been critical of media coverage about service member deaths, saying at a March news conference that, “When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news.”

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美国商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克周四公开道歉，此前他错误地声称，在特朗普政府与伊朗的战争中没有美国人丧生。

卢特尼克在接受CNBC采访为这场战争辩护时提出了这一说法，他说：“总统处理伊朗问题的方式，对吧？目前还没有美国人伤亡。这实际上只是一场经济封锁，而政府现在正在更广泛地执行这项封锁，我认为这将非常有效。”

事实上，自美国2月份首次袭击伊朗以来，已有18名美军士兵丧生，另有数百人受伤。

卢特尼克周四早上在 X 上发帖称，他“说错了话”，把伊朗长达六个月的战争与美国政府此前对委内瑞拉长达数小时的入侵混淆了。

“昨天在G20创新峰会上谈到人工智能时，我回答了一个关于伊朗军事行动的问题，我说错了，”他写道。“我当时想到的是委内瑞拉的军事行动，那次行动中没有军人伤亡。”

卢特尼克还向阵亡军人的家属致辞，写道：“我心碎了，我对他们的损失深感悲痛。”

卢特尼克周三上午在接受关于科技和贸易问题的采访时发表了上述言论，事发后并未立即引起公众的广泛关注。但周四早些时候，唐纳德·特朗普总统试图先发制人地淡化此事，他在Truth Social上发帖称：“卢特尼克部长当时满脑子想的都是委内瑞拉，可当时根本没人丧命。伊朗可是有18人丧生啊！”

大约45分钟后，卢特尼克发表了公开道歉声明。

政府在披露和讨论伊朗战争中伤亡人员方面一直备受关注，尤其是在7月份国防部网站公布的伤亡总数中，有4人死亡、数十人受伤的记录消失了。国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯此前曾批评媒体对军人死亡的报道，他在3月份的新闻发布会上表示：“只要有几架无人机突破防线或者发生悲剧，就会成为头版新闻。”