Transcript of Trump Called Out by US Troops over War Cover-Up

Donald Trump is blocking catastrophically injured soldiers from the war in Iran from getting the medical attention that they need here in the United States as part of a broader coverup of the serious injuries that have taken place in this war in Iran. The Trump regime has been saying that 90% of the injured service members, which total, they claim, around 500, have very minor injuries, are not seriously injured, and are able able to return to combat if necessary. This has been proven to be a lie. First off, I think we all know that the Trump regime is likely understating the amount of service member injured by multiples. Remember back in 2020 when Iran retaliated against Donald Trump's assassination of General Soleimani? Remember the Trump regime first claimed that there was 11 people that were injured in Iran's retaliatory strikes, but they were non-serious, just some headaches. Remember, it turned out it was 10 times that amount. It was over 100 soldiers at a base in Iraq who all suffered very serious traumatic brain injuries. So if you take the current number that the Trump regime is claiming of non-seriously injured soldiers from the current catastrophic war in Iran, which they claim to be 400 to 500, I would just multiply that by 10.

And I think that's probably a low estimate of the true amount of people who were actually injured. But CBS did this story where they they spoke with some of these catastrophically wounded soldiers who are being deprived of medical attention. And this includes some of those soldiers who are at the base in Kuwait, the trailer that was not being protected by the Trump regime, which was hit by an Iranian drone where 6 service members died that we know about. And these catastrophically injured service members who had shrapnel wounds, who barely survived and clearly have traumatic brain injuries, They say, and their wives say, that they're not even being allowed to have TBI, traumatic brain injury, tests because the Trump regime is classifying them as non-seriously injured. They can't get access to medical service, and they're basically being told that they need to return to being back on duty. I mean, it is absolutely outrageous. I wanna share with you the CBS exclusive, but then I wanna remind you of what the Trump regime has previously done in covering up these types of injuries before, including during the first Trump administration. So here's the scoop: wounded soldiers and families accused the Army of downplaying war injuries.

And it said how Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, claimed that there were only 400 injured American service members in the catastrophic war in Iran, but that they were non-serious injuries, they were minor injuries. But now a lot of those soldiers and their spouses are going public because they're not getting the medical attention that they need. For example, Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Behrman's body was riddled with shrapnel after the Iranian drone hit the workstation, which is basically a trailer that was left unprotected by the Trump regime. The Iranian drone hit it on March 1st, killed 6 people, 6 service members. And the injuries to Berman included a massive concussion, hearing loss, vision loss, serious damage to his lungs. As a former litigator having handled, you know, car accident cases, this is a quintessential example of what would be a traumatic brain injury, which is permanent and disabling. But the Army classified Bearman's condition as not seriously injured. And now he's not able to get certain, uh, surgeries and procedures and evaluations. He wasn't transported to the right places for treatment, which probably was medical malpractice and compounded his injuries and the permanent status of his injuries.

His wife says it's completely unacceptable. And CBS and other news outlets, uh, reporting that there are dozens and dozens of other people who were saying the same thing has happened. Another story they highlight is Sergeant First Class Corey Hicks. I'll pull up a photo of Corey Hicks and his wife right there. 37 years old, severe shrapnel wounds from the drone blast. Um, he suffered serious injuries, but according to the Trump regime's medical reports, this was just a minor jaw injury. He needs to be returned to duty immediately. These are non-serious injuries. And Hicks says, they're not even letting me get tested for a traumatic brain injury. They've done no neuro exams. Let me repeat that. Hicks is saying no neuro exams. And now the Army spokespeople are slamming these service members and calling them liars and saying the Army pushed back and said that these people are not seriously injured, that the care and wellbeing of our soldiers are our highest priority. And any assertion by these service members that they're not getting the best care, the Trump regime says, is an utter, utter lie. Um, and then the spouses of the service members basically said, uh, we're around them.

Like, we know that they have traumatic brain injury and they're not able, uh, to function. But the Trump regime says, nope, not seriously injured. You don't get to get the treatment, uh, here at, uh, Walter Reed or at our facilities. We won't even do neuro tests on you. So let me just remind mind you though, right now? Well, um, first let's go back to 2020, uh, the initial coverup. Trump kills Soleimani, remember the Iranian general, uh, Iran retaliates. And then the Trump regime covered up in 2020 that when Iran retaliated and hit a base where there was 100 US soldiers, uh, hundreds of soldiers had traumatic brain injuries. The Trump regime said minor headaches. This is what Donald Trump said after, the retaliatory strikes by Iran. This is from 2020. Here, play this clip.

Were actually injured, uh, in the retaliatory strike that, that Iran, uh, put forward a couple of weeks ago. Listen to his response. I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say, uh, and I can report it is not very serious. Not very serious. Potential traumatic brain injury serious. Uh, they told me about it numerous days later. You'd have to ask Department of Defense. No, I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen.

Then in 2024, uh, during the campaign, Donald Trump continued to say that the troops had minor headaches and it was no big deal. And anyone who said that the troops were hurt is a liar. Play this clip.

Do you believe that you should have been tougher, uh, on Iran after they had launched ballistic missiles in 2020, uh, on US forces in Iraq, leaving more than 100 US soldiers injured. So first of all, injured. What does injured mean? Injured means you mean because they had a headache because the bombs never hit the fort.

And I'll remind you that Governor Walz during the debate with JD Vance pointed this out as well. But JD Vance said it was a lie. Watch how prescient Governor Walz is here though, in calling this out here. Let's play this clip.

Thank you, Senator. Governor Walz, do you care to respond to any of the allegations? Well, look, Donald Trump was in office. We'll sometimes hear a revisionist history, but when Donald Trump was in office, it was Donald Trump who— we had a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran's nuclear program in, the inability to advance it. Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place. So Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before because of Donald Trump's fickle leadership. And when Iran shot down an American aircraft in international airspace, Donald Trump tweeted, because that's the standard diplomacy of Donald Trump. And when Iranian missiles did fall near U.S. troops and they received traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump wrote it off as headaches. Look, our allies understand that Donald Trump is fickle. He will go to whoever has the most flattery or where it makes sense to him. Steady leadership like you witnessed today, like you witnessed in April, Both Iranian attacks were repelled. Our coalition is strong, and we need the steady leadership that Kamala Harris is providing.

Now I'll remind you what Pete Hegseth had to say, uh, during the war, where he said, um, 90% or more are very minor injuries. No one's really seriously injured. Here's what Hegseth said this time around and this catastrophic war. And he said, you know, they're all being able to report back to duty. There's no big deal here. Play this clip.

Yeah, right there. Green jacket. With the Washington Examiner. How many American casualties have there been and where were the American service members when they were injured? I mean, it's a bunch of return to duty. So we've had a whole, the large, large majority have gone in for some medical treatment and returned to duty. We've had in Kuwait, Jordan, down across the southern flank a little bit, a variety of places, most from one-way attack strikes. But I want to clarify that. I think what we try to do here— yeah, some of these clarify those numbers rather than saying, yeah, KIA or WIA wounded. Be more clear about that because the overwhelming majority, almost 90%, thank God, are returned to duty. Minor, minor injuries, returned to duty. And so that number can, can look a certain way. And our job is to add some fidelity to it. Absolutely right. Yeah.

And here's Donald Trump downplaying the casualties in the war. Let's play this clip.

Like an anaconda, you slowly squeeze— you'll talk to them, but you're slowly squeezing them to Yeah. I'm talking to him. Hey, I'd sort of like, I mean, I'd like to get a deal now, less than 3 or 4 weeks to go, because you know, once you do this, it's, I just, you could just go a step further. But I don't know that America has the appetite to do what I would really much prefer doing. You remember in Iraq, I said, don't go in, but they went in. They've made a big mistake. It should have never let, you know, that war lasted 10 years, killed Tens of thousands of people, millions of people on both sides, millions of people. Nobody ever reported that.

And just so you can see Sergeant Hicks for yourself, here he is with his wife, and you can see the condition that he's in. I mean, this guy is clearly suffering from major, major catastrophic injuries, a catastrophic TBI, and the fact that he can't even get a neuro exam right now is outrageous. Here, let's play this clip of him.

You know, like a buzzing noise that got, uh, louder and louder, like really quickly. I remember turning my head to the left and I seen the nose of that drone pop through. And as soon as it did, I knew what it was. It was either a missile or a drone. So I turned to my right and that's when it blew up and just blew the whole building apart.

Hicks is now recovering from severe shrapnel injuries at Walter Reed in Maryland. Yeah, and he reported that he can't get neuro exams. They're not testing him for— they're not even testing him right now. This is what Donald Trump has turned the VA into. It's absolutely outrageous. Now, you'll also note that when Donald Trump visited Walter Reed for his own suspicious physical, which apparently he saw 22 specialists He refused, as you know, to meet with any of the injured troops from the catastrophic war in Iran. He refused to meet with them and because he didn't want to be photographed with any of them because he's downplaying the injuries and he doesn't want anybody, um, you know, he doesn't want anybody to, uh, be seen, you know, be seen as being injured around him because he knows and probably knows that there is way more than 500 people who have been catastrophically injured. Again, My own estimate is that it's probably in the thousands of catastrophically injured. And I think that the death toll is probably more than the— I've heard 13, 14. I think the death toll is significantly more than that in the US. I mean, but, you know, because Trump always covers this stuff up.

But when you talk about the death toll in general, I mean, you're talking about 6,000 Iranians, close to 4,000 Lebanese. And we're talking about innocents. Mostly innocent civilians, uh, mothers, children, civilians getting, uh, you know, getting, getting killed. And I'll just remind you that Donald Trump has previously said to Miriam Adelson, who's basically the big funder of— who's given Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem and to, um, you know, to pursue some of the policies that got us involved in this catastrophic and unlawful war in in the first place with Netanyahu. Donald Trump said that giving the Presidential Medal of Honor is a much bigger prize than the Congressional Medal of Honor because for Donald Trump, you know, when soldiers are really injured and/or they die, he goes, I'd rather just be a civilian. That seems like a much better award to get. Remember he said this? So disgusting. Here, play this clip.

I have to say, Miriam, uh, I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the highest award you can get as a civilian. It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor. That soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. She gets it. And she's a healthy, beautiful woman. It's very— and they're rated equal.

Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Really disturbing behavior by the Trump regime. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content. Content only available at MidasPlus.com.