Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland posted on X that President Donald Trump, whom he described as having called fallen American soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” is now hiding how many service members have been killed and injured in what he called a “war of choice.” The Saturday Post linked a Washington Post report on Iran-war casualty figures and drew a large wave of replies, many of them disputing the “suckers” and “losers” claim as a long-denied or already-debunked allegation.
In the post, Van Hollen wrote that “the president who called American soldiers who died in war ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ is now hiding the number of service members killed & injured in his war of choice,” and added, “Absolutely disgraceful.”
He linked a Sept. 18 Washington Post report that, citing unnamed U.S. officials, said more American service members have died in the Middle East during the Iran war than appear in the Pentagon’s public casualty database.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected that report on X as “DISGUSTING and FAKE” and “a complete LIE.” A Post spokeswoman later said the paper stands by its reporting. The identities and circumstances of any additional deaths named in the story have not been independently confirmed in public Pentagon announcements.
Responses to Van Hollen’s Post on Iran War Casualties
Many replies focused less on the casualty tally than on Van Hollen’s use of the “suckers” and “losers” line, which Trump has long denied. “He never said that and you repeating a lie is what is absolutely disgraceful,” one user wrote. Another said, “That never happened.”
A third asked, “That lie has been debunked many times, and it just shows how desperate Van Hollen is to repeat a worthless LIE.”
Others tied the argument to the war itself or to how deaths are counted. One commenter said the Post was “reporting total deaths, including those from disease and training accidents,” while “the Pentagon was reporting combat deaths.”
Another wrote, “That is a lie, that has been proven to be a lie; he never said that, and the Pentagon has already proven that nobody is covering up anything.” A separate reply asked, “How many Americans perished during the Afghanistan retreat?”
The underlying Post story also drew support from users who argued the official count was incomplete. Novelist Don Winslow wrote that the Pentagon and Hegseth were not telling the full death toll and that “even this report underestimates the truth.”
Commentator Olga Lautman said Hegseth “needs to be fired immediately,” comparing the casualty accounting to “Russia’s tactic of hiding military deaths.”
For now, Van Hollen’s post sits inside a larger fight over how the Pentagon accounts for deaths in the Iran war. Online, though, much of the argument still turns on whether the old “suckers” and “losers” line belongs in that debate at all.
