(CNN) — When the New York Times first reported last week that four recent US deaths in the Iran war had suddenly disappeared from the Defense Department’s casualty-reporting website, the Pentagon was adamant that this was a mere “temporary data disruption.”
But it’s become increasingly clear that wasn’t the full story. And it’s merely the latest episode in President Donald Trump’s chaotic and often callous handling of military deaths.
The deaths have not only now been reclassified in a more convenient and politically expedient manner for the administration — namely, it makes the total number of deaths due to Trump’s Iran war look lower and plays into his claims about his war authority — but it also turns out the deaths have actually been classified three separate ways on the Pentagon’s website in the last week alone.
The reclassified deaths
The four deaths had suddenly returned to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System over the weekend. But rather than being re-added under Operation Epic Fury (the Iran war mission) — which one would expect if this were indeed just a data glitch — they were instead added to a whole new category on the site: the broadly named “Overseas Operations.”
The Pentagon also recorded more than 140 additional wounded service members in the system as part of that update.
This newly created category is described as accounting for “casualties starting July 7th 2026,” which is the date the administration has claimed it began a new conflict with Iran (more on that in a bit).
That’s not the only time the Pentagon’s website has changed how these deaths were classified.
In a press release early last week, the Pentagon announced the deaths of two of the four soldiers, saying they “were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.”
Operation Inherent Resolve is the mission started in 2014 to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but the service members were killed by Iranian attacks. Soon, the language was changed to say the fallen troops “were supporting overseas operations in Jordan.”
Why the changes are convenient for Trump
In other words, these service members have now been linked on the Pentagon website to three different operations — two of which, it bears emphasizing, allow the administration to claim the casualties weren’t part of Operation Epic Fury.
And while it’s not clear precisely why this was done, it is clear that’s politically and legally convenient for the administration in a couple of ways.
First, it could conceivably allow Trump to claim there were fewer US deaths in the Iran war.
Last week, Trump continued to cite 18 deaths — the number including the most recent four — rather than 14 deaths. But he’s also made it abundantly clear that he is quite concerned about the politics of the troop deaths and the death toll. He also regularly attacked then-President Joe Biden for 13 American deaths in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
The second reason it’s convenient is that it bolsters Trump’s legal claim to the authority to continue the war without the required congressional approval.
The War Powers Act gives presidents 60 to 90 days to launch military action without congressional authorization. So to get around this, the administration has claimed the first conflict ended during the ceasefire that started in April, and that a new one began on July 7. (Even some Republicans have cast doubt on this gambit.)
It’s problematic for that argument to list the four latest deaths as occurring in Operation Epic Fury, given that’s purportedly over. And lo, the administration has instead moved to suggest they were part of another operation, whether that’s Operation Inherent Resolve or “Overseas Operations.”
Politicizing troop deaths — again
But it’s difficult to comprehend this as anything other than effectively playing accounting games with the deaths of troops.
These four soldiers were, for all intents and purposes, killed as part of the same war the first 14 soldiers were killed in. There was just a three-month lull in fighting in between, as the administration and Iran’s leaders tried to hold together a patchwork pair of ceasefires.
The situation looks even worse given the Pentagon’s indignant initial response claiming the removed troops deaths were merely “temporary data disruptions.” The New York Times had cited unnamed military officials who said that the change was intentional, though at the time it was unclear how the Pentagon planned to recategorize the deaths.
It’s a hell of a way to deal with something as serious and sensitive as troop deaths. These are the kinds of things you want to make sure you get right from the start.
But it’s also kind of par for course for Trump and his administration.
Trump has for years struggled to speak empathetically about dead and injured service members. That spans from the late Sen. John McCain to “suckers” and “losers” to downplaying traumatic brain injuries to off-color comments about awards for injured service members and NATO troops who served in Afghanistan.
The Iran war has given him more cause to talk about the topic, and it’s clearly still something he struggles with. Both he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made awkward comments about the initial troop deaths back in March. And, increasingly, Trump has set about comparing the lower death toll so far to other recent wars and even claiming that the fallen troops and all their families supported his Iran war effort — despite at least one family member saying something quite different.
But little is sacred to Trump so, like everything else, the troop deaths quickly become part of a political calculation to be minded and massaged.
The-CNN-Wire
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