California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office sharply criticized President Trump after he posted a comparison of American death tolls across several wars, including the ongoing conflict with Iran, calling the post disrespectful to service members.
Trump listed casualty figures for five conflicts in a post on Truth Social. “Afghanistan War: 20 years, 2,000 DEAD,” Trump wrote. “Iraq War: 9 years, 4,600 DEAD. Vietnam War: 19 years and 5 months, 58,220 DEAD. Korean War: 3 years and 1 month, 36,574 DEAD. Venezuela War: 1 day, 0 DEAD. Iran Military Conflict: 4 months, 18 DEAD.”
Newsom’s office responded by posting an image of Trump’s message alongside its own condemnation. “Donald Trump is a disgusting Little Man!” the Governor’s Press Office wrote on X. “Treat our brave American soldiers with some respect.”
Trump’s tallies are broadly consistent with official U.S. figures, though some vary depending on the source and time period counted. The Defense Department’s Defense Casualty Analysis System lists 2,459 total U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan over the 20-year war, somewhat higher than the 2,000 Trump cited, while Pentagon wartime tallies for Iraq have ranged from roughly 4,431 to 4,600 depending on the cutoff date used. The Korean War figure of 36,574 and the Vietnam War figure of 58,220 both align closely with longstanding Department of Defense and National Archives casualty figures for those conflicts.
The Iran figure of 18 matches the Pentagon’s most recently confirmed toll. The Defense Department identified Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 21 as the 18th American service member killed since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, according to Pentagon casualty announcements. Swinton died during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone at Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
Trump’s reference to a “Venezuela War” with “0 DEAD” describes the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Trump said at the time that the operation involved simultaneous air, land and sea action and that no American service member was killed or lost equipment during the raid. Independent tracking of the operation has cited Venezuelan and Cuban military and security personnel killed during the raid, along with a small number of American troops wounded, though the U.S. government’s own public statements have focused on the absence of American fatalities.
Newsom offered a mixed assessment of that operation shortly after it occurred, saying Maduro was “a thug and a criminal” but cautioning that “Donald Trump proposing to ‘run’ Venezuela without a coherent long-term plan beyond an oil grab is dangerous for America,” and that “the path forward must be democracy, human rights, and stability.”
The Venezuela operation drew mixed reactions from other California Democrats as well. Rep. Doris Matsui said at the time that “military conflict should be a last resort” and that “acting without congressional authorization is illegal, reckless, and risks entangling the United States in a broader conflict that doesn’t make America or the world safer.” She added that “sending U.S. forces into another country without congressional authorization or notification to remove its government constitutes an unauthorized act of war by the president.”
The Iran conflict, now in its fifth month, has drawn far more sustained U.S. casualties than the single-day Venezuela operation. Since fighting resumed following the collapse of a ceasefire earlier this month, three of the 18 total American deaths have come within the past week, including two soldiers killed in an Iranian missile and drone attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan and Sgt. Swinton’s death in Iraq.
Trump has directed military leadership to ensure Iran “pays for that killing many times over” for each American service member killed, and has continued to authorize nightly airstrikes on Iranian military and infrastructure targets in the weeks since the ceasefire broke down.
Newsom’s office has repeatedly criticized Trump’s handling of the Iran war throughout the conflict. In March, after the deaths of the first American service members in the war, Newsom’s press office wrote that “four service members died today and Trump spent more time talking about his ballroom than the loss of those lives.” Newsom expanded on the criticism at a press conference the same day, saying Trump “spent more time talking about the curtains in his ballroom than the four service members that died because of his operations and declaration of war without congressional consent.”
Newsom, who is widely seen as considering a 2028 presidential campaign, has used his office’s social media accounts throughout the year to respond directly and often combatively to Trump’s own posts, a pattern that has continued with his office’s latest statement.
Neither the White House nor Trump has issued a direct public response to Newsom’s office’s latest statement.