{"id":7483,"date":"2026-07-28T18:04:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:04:37","slug":"the-trump-administration-is-playing-accounting-games-with-dead-us-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7483","title":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is playing accounting games with dead US troops"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n When the New York Times first reported last week that four recent US deaths in the Iran war had suddenly disappeared from the Defense Department\u2019s casualty-reporting website, the Pentagon was adamant that this was a mere \u201ctemporary data disruption.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more \u2018A moment in time\u2019: Fossil footprints shed new light on the extinct \u2018Nutcracker Man\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n But it\u2019s become increasingly clear that wasn\u2019t the full story. And it\u2019s merely the latest episode in President Donald Trump\u2019s chaotic and often callous handling of military deaths.\n <\/p>\n

\n The deaths have not only now been reclassified in a more convenient and politically expedient manner for the administration \u2014 namely, it makes the total number of deaths due to Trump\u2019s Iran war look lower and plays into his claims about his war authority \u2014 but it also turns out the deaths have actually been classified three separate ways on the Pentagon\u2019s website in the last week alone.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reclassified deaths\n<\/h2>\n

\n The four deaths had suddenly returned to the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Casualty Analysis System over the weekend. But rather than being re-added under Operation Epic Fury (the Iran war mission) \u2014 which one would expect if this were indeed just a data glitch \u2014 they were instead added to a whole new category on the site: the broadly named \u201cOverseas Operations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Pentagon also recorded more than 140 additional wounded service members in the system as part of that update.\n <\/p>\n

\n This newly created category is described as accounting for \u201ccasualties starting July 7th 2026,\u201d which is the date the administration has claimed it began a new conflict with Iran (more on that in a bit).\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s not the only time the Pentagon\u2019s website has changed how these deaths were classified.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a press release early last week, the Pentagon announced the deaths of two of the four soldiers, saying they \u201cwere supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Operation Inherent Resolve is the mission started in 2014 to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but the service members were killed by Iranian attacks. Soon, the language was changed to say the fallen troops \u201cwere supporting overseas operations in Jordan.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Why the changes are convenient for Trump\n<\/h2>\n
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\"President<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nPresident Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One, en route to Michigan, on July 27.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Evan Vucci\/Reuters<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n In other words, these service members have now been linked on the Pentagon website to three different operations \u2014 two of which, it bears emphasizing, allow the administration to claim the casualties weren\u2019t part of Operation Epic Fury.\n <\/p>\n

\n And while it\u2019s not clear precisely why this was done, it is<\/em> clear that\u2019s politically and legally convenient for the administration in a couple of ways.\n <\/p>\n

\n First, it could conceivably allow Trump to claim there were fewer US deaths in the Iran war.\n <\/p>

Read more How to see July\u2019s full buck moon<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Last week, Trump continued to cite 18 deaths \u2014 the number including the most recent four \u2014 rather than 14 deaths. But he\u2019s also made it abundantly clear that he is quite concerned about the politics of the troop deaths and the death toll. He also regularly attacked then-President Joe Biden for 13 American deaths in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.\n <\/p>\n

\n The second reason it\u2019s convenient is that it bolsters Trump\u2019s legal claim to the authority to continue the war without the required congressional approval.\n <\/p>\n

\n The War Powers Act gives presidents 60 to 90 days to launch military action without congressional authorization. So to get around this, the administration has claimed the first conflict ended during the ceasefire that started in April, and that a new one began on July 7. (Even some Republicans have cast doubt on this gambit.)\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s problematic for that argument to list the four latest deaths as occurring in Operation Epic Fury, given that\u2019s purportedly over. And lo, the administration has instead moved to suggest they were part of another operation, whether that\u2019s Operation Inherent Resolve or \u201cOverseas Operations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Politicizing troop deaths \u2014 again\n<\/h2>\n

\n But it\u2019s difficult to comprehend this as anything other than effectively playing accounting games with the deaths of troops.\n <\/p>\n

\n These four soldiers were, for all intents and purposes, killed as part of the same war the first 14 soldiers were killed in. There was just a three-month lull in fighting in between, as the administration and Iran\u2019s leaders tried to hold together a patchwork pair of ceasefires.\n <\/p>\n

\n The situation looks even worse given the Pentagon\u2019s indignant initial response claiming the removed troops deaths were merely \u201ctemporary data disruptions.\u201d The New York Times had cited unnamed military officials who said that the change was intentional, though at the time it was unclear how the Pentagon planned to recategorize the deaths.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a hell of a way to deal with something as serious and sensitive as troop deaths. These are the kinds of things you want to make sure you get right from the start.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it\u2019s also kind of par for course for Trump and his administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has for years struggled to speak empathetically about dead and injured service members. That spans from the late Sen. John McCain to \u201csuckers\u201d and \u201closers\u201d to downplaying traumatic brain injuries to off-color comments about awards for injured service members and NATO troops who served in Afghanistan.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Iran war has given him more cause to talk about the topic, and it\u2019s clearly still something he struggles with. Both he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made awkward comments about the initial troop deaths back in March. And, increasingly, Trump has set about comparing the lower death toll so far to other recent wars and even claiming that the fallen troops and all their families supported his Iran war effort \u2014 despite at least one family member saying something quite different.\n <\/p>\n

\n But little is sacred to Trump so, like everything else, the troop deaths quickly become part of a political calculation to be minded and massaged.\n <\/p>

Read more DNC Chair Ken Martin\u2019s supporters dismiss concerns about the party\u2019s debt and his leadership<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s merely the latest episode in President Donald Trump\u2019s chaotic and often callous handling of military deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Trump administration is playing accounting games with dead US troops - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7483\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Trump administration is playing accounting games with dead US troops - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s merely the latest episode in President Donald Trump\u2019s chaotic and often callous handling of military deaths.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7483\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T18:04:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/83ccb4e6e88f8de168c24e9a9f6b7d39.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"516\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"The Trump administration is playing accounting games with dead US troops\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T18:04:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483\"},\"wordCount\":1010,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/cabd02b5c8a1b398894c3ba7050c9da6.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7483\",\"name\":\"The Trump administration is playing accounting games with dead US troops - 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