U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick apologizes after previously saying that no American service members had died in the U.S. conflict involving Iran. He acknowledges that 18 members of the U.S. military have been killed and says his earlier statement was incorrect. In a post on X, he expresses condolences to the families of the fallen.
Lutnick says he “misspoke,” adding that he was thinking about a separate U.S. military operation involving Venezuela, where no service members died. Multiple outlets report that his apology follows his earlier television comments describing the Iran war as an “economic chokeout” and asserting that there were no U.S. deaths. The accounts focus on the same corrected figure—18 killed—and the explanation that the comment was linked to confusion with the Venezuela operation.
