Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick APOLOGIZES After Claiming No Troops Have Died In Iran War

Lutnick: "The way the president is playing Iran — there haven't been American deaths, it's really just an economic choke-out … " (There have been 18 American deaths!) pic.twitter.com/Yii1FZxtbx

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 2, 2026

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick apologized Thursday for saying on television that no Americans had died in the war with Iran, saying he was thinking about Venezuela.
“I misspoke. 18 members of our military have died, and to those families ⁠my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss. I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died,” Lutnick said in a post on the social platform X.

Lutnick made the comments on CNBC on Wednesday while attending the Group of 20 finance summit in North Carolina.

“The way the president is playing Iran — there haven’t been American deaths, it’s really just an economic choke-out,” he said when talking about bond markets.
President Trump defended his Commerce secretary on Truth Social before Lutnick’s post.

“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed,” Trump wrote. “18 people were killed in Iran!”

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While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke. 18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss. I was thinking about the…

— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) September 3, 2026

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While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke. 18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss.

I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died. 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!

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Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!

( TS: Sep 3 2026, 7:31 AM ET )‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‌ pic.twitter.com/14IMS8emhz

— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) September 3, 2026

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The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told lawmakers in a closed-door interview earlier this month that he met Jeffrey Epstein only three times and had no “personal or professional relationship” with the disgraced financier, according to a newly released transcript of the meeting.

“I unequivocally condemn the conduct attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and everyone who participated in his illegal activities,” Lutnick said in his opening statement before the House oversight and reform committee.

The comments came during a closed-door interview before the House oversight and reform committee earlier this month, during which lawmakers questioned Lutnick for several hours about his previous ties to Epstein and his past statements about their interactions.

According to the transcript, released on Wednesday afternoon, Lutnick said he met Epstein, whom he said lived “adjacent to my New York City home”, on only three occasions. Lutnick said that the first meeting occurred in 2005, when he and his wife were invited for coffee at Epstein’s home. The second was in 2011, when he said he briefly visited Epstein’s home to discuss “scaffolding”, and the third, Lutnick said, was in 2012, when Epstein invited him, his family and friends to lunch on his private island.

“To the best of my recollection, those were the only three occasions in which I interacted with Epstein in person,” Lutnick said. “Each and every one was meaningless and inconsequential.”

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