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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday described the war with Iran as “small potatoes” for the United States, in the latest effort by his administration to play down the conflict ahead of crucial midterm elections.
Trump’s comments came a day after Vice President JD Vance said, “I wouldn’t call it a war”, despite a surge in clashes between the United States and Iran around the Strait of Hormuz.
“A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about Vance’s remarks.
“It’s not a big thing. We did Venezuela, and we did this,” Trump added as he stood alongside cattle ranchers who had been invited to the White House for the signing of two executive orders on beef processing.
The six-month-old conflict, in which 18 US service members and thousands of Iranians have been killed, has reached a stalemate, with Tehran disrupting shipping through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.
With rising fuel prices threatening to hurt Trump’s Republican Party in November’s midterm elections and potentially cost it control of Congress, his administration has sought to minimise the significance of the conflict.
Trump said the United States was carrying out “intermittent strikes”, but insisted that “we’re not fighting right now”.
He also repeated his claims that the United States effectively controlled the Strait of Hormuz and had severely weakened Iran’s military capabilities.
“What we’ve done is amazing. We took over Venezuela and we have essentially taken over Iran,” Trump said.
When pressed on his description of the conflict as “small potatoes” given that 18 US service members had died, Trump became increasingly irritated and compared the Iran conflict with the years-long US wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
“I don’t think it matters what you call it. What matters is the fact we have had tremendous success. We’ve stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” he said.
