Trump pushes back on U.S. soldiers' brain injuries: "They had a headache?"

Source: Axios

7 hours ago


Former President Trump on Tuesday referred to brain injuries more than 100 U.S. troops sustained in an Iranian attack on a base in Iraq as "headaches."

The latest: The Harris campaign, in an emailed statement at midnight Wednesday, called Trump "unfit to be Commander-in-Chief" over the remarks, which echoed comments he made in the wake of the January 2020 attack on the base.

Driving the news The Republican presidential nominee made the comments after being asked Tuesday if he believed he "should have been tougher on Iran" following the attack.

"What does injured mean? You mean because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort?" Trump said.

Zoom in: Trump told the reporter there was "nobody ever tougher on Iraq" than him, in apparent reference to Iran.

"When you say not tough, they had no money. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for Hezbollah. And when we hit them, they hit us. And they called us, and they said, 'We're going to shoot at your fort but we're not going to hit it,'" Trump said.

"And if you were a truthful reporter, which you're not, you would tell the following: None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort," he added. "They all hit outside, and there was nobody hurt other than the sound was loud and some people said that hurt, and I accept that."

Of note: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) noted during his vice presidential debate with Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) that after the 2020 attack happened Trump "wrote off" the troops' injuries as "headaches."

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/10/02/trump-us-soldiers-injuries-iran-strike-iraq-base-2020