Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday he misspoke a day earlier when he described the Iran war as an “economic chokeout” in which no U.S. service members had died.
Mr. Lutnick said he had been thinking about the January raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which did not result in any deaths of U.S. personnel.
“While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke,” Mr. Lutnick posted on X. “18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss.”
Mr. Lutnick made the remarks during a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance summit in North Carolina. He was speaking about his optimism around the U.S. economy.
“I think the way the president is playing Iran, right, there haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic chokeout,” Mr. Lutnick said.
Since March, 18 service members have died amid the Iran war while serving at U.S. bases in the Middle East. The first six deaths occurred on March 1 in Kuwait, and the most recent were in mid-July, when three troops were killed at a base in Jordan, and another was killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in Iraq.
Mr. Lutnick’s misstep reached the attention of President Trump, who said his secretary was thinking of Venezuela.
“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!” Mr. Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social.
Mr. Lutnick underscored his appreciation for the U.S. military, particularly its service in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed his family members and coworkers at Cantor Fitzgerald, the company he led at the time.
“As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I am deeply thankful for our military and the sacrifices the men and women who serve our great country make, so such an attack, where I lost my brother Gary (36), my best friend Doug (39) and 656 other close friends and colleagues in the attacks on the World Trade Center, never happens again. Never!” Mr. Lutnick posted.
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