If American deaths grow, Trump’s comments could come back to haunt himpublished at 05:09 GMT
05:09 GMT
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Image source, Reuters
The joint US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran now has an American casualty count, after the Pentagon confirmed that three US military service members had been killed in action.
Donald Trump has said that the nation grieves their deaths, but they may not be the last.
“That’s the way it is,” he said in a video recorded from his Mar-a-Lago club and released by the White House while Air Force One was in flight, en route back to Washington DC.
The line seemed unscripted. And it may turn out to be ill-advised.
If the number of American deaths grows, Trump’s remark, along with an earlier comment in an interview that “we expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world”, could come back to haunt him.
George W Bush’s speech under a “mission accomplished” banner, delivered from the deck of an aircraft carrier returning from the early action during the Iraq War in 2003, is but one memorable example of how words — and images — can become significant political liabilities as circumstances change.
For the moment, however, the bombing grinds on, while life in America continues almost as normal.