President Donald Trump spoke out on behalf of the U.S. soldiers killed during his ongoing war with Iran, telling reporters Tuesday that they voiced support for the attacks, saying we “cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
“They are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and they, all of them said very strongly, ‘We can’t let, cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,’” he told reporters before departing to attend a ceremony for four service members recently killed overseas.
“So we’re going to honor them. And one of the hardest things to do for me, it’s one of the hardest things for me to do as president, but it has to be done,” he said.
Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
Trump went on to defend the now months-long attacks that have cost U.S. taxpayers at least $37.5 billion so far, while disputing polls that have shown growing public opposition.
“Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he argued.
Trump’s comments came shortly before he presided over the dignified transfer of four soldiers’ remains from a military aircraft at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Some of the service members’ families were seen by a press pool attending the transfer, and were expected to meet privately with Trump beforehand, a White House official said.
The remains included two U.S. Army soldiers who were killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan last week. They have been identified as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas.
The remains of a third service member believed to have gone missing after those attacks in Jordan were also returned. That soldier was identified as 28-year-old Angel S. Rampersad, of Ozone Park, New York. The fourth soldier, 30-year-old Michael Emmanuel Swinton of Spring Lake, North Carolina, was killed on Sunday during a controlled detonation at a military base in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed since Trump and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28. The attacks were to last just a few weeks, Trump and his administration said, but now it is nearly five months.