US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has apologized for his statement that no US military personnel were killed during the fighting against Iran. He explained the mistake by confusing the war in the Middle East with the operation in Venezuela. An hour before his apology, US President Donald Trump voiced the same version. However, Venezuela was not mentioned at all in the conversation where Latnik mentioned Iran. RTVI sorted out who said what and who said what.
In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in North Carolina, speaking about the economic prospects of Trump's decisions, Lutnick said that “there have been no American casualties under the president's current tactics towards Iran.”
“In reality, this is just economic strangulation that the administration [президента Трампа] is now being implemented on a larger scale. And I think it will be very effective,” Latnick said.
However, a number of media outlets drew attention to the fact that this statement is untrue. Even according to official data from the Pentagon, during the fighting against Iran, 18 US military personnel were killed and more than 750 were injured.
On Thursday, Latnick admitted the mistake, posting an apology on his X (formerly Twitter) page. He said that he misspoke and was thinking about Venezuela when he spoke about Iran.
“Talking about artificial intelligence at the G20 Innovation Summit yesterday, I was answering a question about military operations in Iran and made a mistake. 18 of our service members have lost their lives, and my heart breaks for their families and sadness for their loss. “I was thinking about the military operation in Venezuela, during which not a single soldier was killed,” the minister wrote.
He also linked his gratitude to the American military and the sacrifices they make with the upcoming 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The minister noted that he lost his brother Gary and best friend Doug there, as well as 656 other close friends and colleagues. At the time, Latnick was serving as chairman and CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, whose office was located in the north tower of the World Trade Center. The future minister survived because he took his son to kindergarten and was late for work.
Interestingly, an hour before Latnik’s message, his immediate supervisor, Donald Trump, publicly stood up for him. It was in his message that the Venezuelan version first appeared.
“Minister Latnik was referring to Venezuela when he said no one died. 18 people killed in Iran!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Washington Post writes that publicly correcting statements from subordinates is an “unusual step” for Trump. The New Republic calls this a “ridiculous excuse” and regards the episode itself as a cabinet member’s ignorance of the facts about the activities of his own administration. The publication calls Latnik himself “incompetent.”
During the operation in Venezuela, during which President Nicolas Maduro was captured and taken to the United States, the American military did not actually die. However, seven were injured, but the main thing is that Venezuela, the operation in which took place eight months ago, was not mentioned at all in Latnik's interview on CNBC.
Note that in April, Politico named Latnik as one of the candidates for dismissal from the Cabinet amid Trump’s dissatisfaction with him. As the publication wrote, citing sources, the Secretary of Commerce allegedly offers the president ill-conceived ideas, and Trump himself is not happy that Latnik’s family receives financial benefits from his work in the administration. In addition, at the beginning of the year, Latnik’s identity surfaced in materials on the case of sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
However, Latnik continues to work in the White House. And even after the current scandal, the president did not publicly criticize the minister, but, on the contrary, actually came out in his defense, explaining the erroneous statement even before Latnik himself apologized.
