Trump Again Dismisses U.S. Troop Injuries From 2020 Iranian Attack As ‘Headaches’

Former President Donald Trump once again dismissed traumatic brain injuries sustained by American troops during a 2020 ballistic missile strike in Iran, diminishing the injuries as mere “headaches” when asked if he should have been tougher on Tehran.

“You mean because they had a headache?” he said Tuesday when asked about the more than 100 U.S. soldiers injured in the blasts. “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.”

He went on to say that “there was nobody ever tougher on Iraq,” while appearing to confuse Iran with Iraq.

More than 100 U.S. soldiers were injured after 11 missiles were dropped over the Ain al-Asad airbase on Jan. 8, 2020. At least 45 of those wounded were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries or TBIs, the Pentagon had said.

Staff Sgt. Rebecca McMillan, who was one of 50 U.S. soldiers to later receive a Purple Heart for her injuries in the attack, said the blast changed the way she’s able to process emotions.

“It messes with your emotions, it messes with your brain, in kind of how you process things,” McMillan said in a 2022 interview about her lasting injuries.

“I just don’t know how to control my emotions correctly anymore,” she said while expressing gratitude for the compassion and empathy she had received from her then-fiancé, SFC Daine Kvasager, who also received a Purple Heart following the blast.

Kvasager, in a separate interview with CBS News in 2021, said he was left with vision and hearing problems, as well as constant headaches and memory loss.

“The person I was prior to a traumatic brain injury, he’s gone,” he said. “There’s parts that remain. The pieces are all still there, just — yeah, he’s not coming back.”

U.S. soldiers stationed at the airbase at the time of the bombing reportedly told CBS News that they had felt pressured to downplay their injuries to avoid a further escalation with Iran and to avoid conflicting with Trump’s public comments on the matter.

Trump shortly after the blasts in 2020 dismissed the soldiers’ injuries as “not very serious,” by reasoning that no American troops were killed and that he had seen far worse physical injuries during his presidency.

“I’ve seen people with no legs and no arms,” he said.

He declined to carry out a retaliatory strike on Iran in response to the blast.

Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, brought up Trump’s dismissal of the injuries during the Tuesday night vice presidential debate.

“When Iranian missiles did fall near U.S. troops and they received traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump wrote it off as headaches,” he said.

Several U.S. veterans’ organizations called for Trump to apologize for his remarks when they were first made in 2020.

“Veterans of Foreign Wars cannot stand idle on this matter,” William “Doc” Schmitz, the VFW’s National Commander, said in a statement that accused Trump of having “minimized” the soldiers’ injuries.

“The VFW expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks. And, we ask that he and the White House join with us in our efforts to educate Americans of the dangers TBI has on these heroes as they protect our great nation in these trying times,” Schmitz said.

The nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America also said that an apology by Trump was only “step one” and that more medical benefits were needed along with “the respect and honor that our military members deserve and earned on the battlefield.”

Trump has repeatedly faced scrutiny over his remarks about military veterans.

In 2015 he infamously criticized the now-late Sen. John McCain, saying “he’s not a war hero.”

“I like people who weren’t captured,” he said, while later refusing to apologize. McCain was a former Navy pilot who was tortured and held in solitary confinement during his roughly five-and-half years in a Vietnamese prison.

He more recently was slammed for staging a campaign photo op in Arlington National Cemetery.