As American troops continue dying in the escalating conflict with Iran, Donald Trump struck a strikingly upbeat tone Wednesday — calling the moment “exciting times.”
The president made the remark during a roundtable with tech executives while discussing the growing war his administration launched alongside Israel. (video below).
“Well thank you very much, these are exciting times,” Trump said. “And I think you probably want to speak about war rather than this, but this is very important, this is very important.”
Trump didn’t stop there.
Asked to rate how things are going militarily, the president claimed the war is performing off the charts.
“Somebody said: ‘On a scale of one to ten where would you rate [the war],’ I said about a fifteen,” Trump said.
“And we’re doing very well on the warfront, to put it mildly, I would say,” he added.
Trump then launched into a rambling attack on the nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, insisting it was a terrible agreement that he was forced to dismantle.
The comments came the same day the Pentagon released the final two names of six U.S. soldiers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait — an attack that happened just one day after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran.
The newly identified service members were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa.
According to the Pentagon, the soldiers were part of the Army Reserve and worked in logistics, helping supply troops with food and equipment.
They were stationed at a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, when a drone strike hit the facility Sunday.
The Pentagon said Marzan was at the site when the drone struck the command center and is “believed to be the individual who perished at the scene.” A medical examiner will confirm identification.
Public records appeared to show Marzan living in Virginia while maintaining family ties to the Sacramento area.
O’Brien’s hometown was listed as Indianola, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. A person answering the door at a home address in nearby Waukee declined to comment, saying the family would release a statement later.
The Pentagon had already identified the four other soldiers killed in the attack earlier this week: Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska.
The strike occurred as Iran retaliated against U.S. and Israeli military operations by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and several Gulf states that host American forces.
So while six American service members have now been confirmed killed in the attack, the commander-in-chief is publicly describing the unfolding war as “exciting times” — and rating its progress a “fifteen” on a ten-point scale.
Watch the video below:
