The Department of Defense withheld reporting dozens of injuries to military personnel involved in the Iran war, according to The New York Times. The newly revealed deception is part of a pattern of misinformation from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth connected to the war.
The Times on Monday reported that the Pentagon did not disclose injuries suffered by U.S. service members during an Iranian attack in Jordan. In fact, the attack itself was not revealed to the American public. Instead, the Times said it was made aware of the information via multiple U.S. officials speaking anonymously to the outlet.
The attack on Jordan was also not referenced by U.S. Central Command when the decision to launch strikes against Iran in retaliation for attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz was revealed in a press statement.
The Pentagon has not formally briefed the press on the war since May, reversing a series of triumphalist press conferences that Hegseth conducted earlier in the conflict.
An overturned car sits on a section of a destroyed bridge after a strike in Hormozgan province of southern Iran on July 18.AP
Details of the hidden injuries come after a weekend of intense fighting between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. conducted strikes after an American service member was killed in Iraq during the “controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone, according to the Pentagon.
Last week, Trump announced that a new round of hostilities had begun, proclaiming that America would be designated as “guardian of the Strait [of Hormuz]” after his ceasefire deal fell apart. Despite the purported ceasefire, the last few weeks have seen the U.S. and Iran regularly exchanging blows in the conflict.
Trump has a pattern of misleading the public over his war in Iran. Since early in the conflict, he and Hegseth have insisted that Iran’s military capabilities have been decimated, but leaks of government intelligence have shown that the nation retains significant capacity to wage war.
Back in 2025, Trump insisted that Iran’s military had been “decimated”—while the subsequent violent conflict that has killed both Americans and Iranians has shown that to be a lie.
Trump has even gone so far as to invent conversations with a “former president” to justify his actions, while he and his team have struggled to even explain the cause of the conflict. The administration has offered up an array of justifications, including regime change and limiting Iran’s nuclear capability, without sticking to a definitive reason.
In tandem with the falsehoods and resulting deaths and injuries, the war has continued to be an ongoing drag on the domestic and international economy. There appears to be no end in sight to the deceptions.
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