Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick triggered outrage Thursday after he publicly apologized for falsely claiming this week no Americans had died in the Iran war.
Lutnick claimed that during an on-air interview Wednesday he had confused the Iran conflict, which has claimed 18 service members' lives, with the hours-long invasion of Venezuela earlier this year.
"I misspoke," Lutnick posted on X. "18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss. I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died."
"As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I am deeply thankful for our military and the sacrifices the men and women who serve our great country make, so such an attack, where I lost my brother Gary (36), my best friend Doug (39) and 656 other close friends and colleagues in the attacks on the World Trade Center, never happens again," he added. "Never!"
The president also posted a statement on Truth Social, saying "Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed."
This explanation failed to impress.
Lutnick's post has already been viewed 154,000 times and received hundreds of comments, predominantly negative.
"Nah, i don't think so," the top comment reads."You intentionally misspoke & then threw this up."
Canadian broadcaster Dean Blundell replied with a sneer, "This man is the second most objectionable a------ in America. Good God."
"Damage control, observed newsman Kevin Bohn.
"This guy cut off the paychecks for the families of his fallen colleagues on September 15th, instead of using his own massive wealth to look after them or, as other firms did, securing emergency funding to do so," replied popular X user Ben McCombe.
"This was a day after he promised to look after them on TV. It was only after he rightly received backlash that he put together a package for them. Yet today, 25 years later, he still uses them as shields to deflect criticism when he screws up. Sociopathic."