President Trump confirmed he will attend Saturday’s dignified transfer of the six U.S. soldiers killed in Kuwait amid Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Gulf countries following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time,” Trump wrote late Friday on Truth Social. “GOD BLESS THEM ALL!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that the service members would receive a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and that the president would attend.
The Army has publicly identified the soldiers as Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor of White Bear Lake, Minn.; Capt. Cody Khork of Lakeland, Fla.; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Neb.; Sgt. Declan Coady of Des Moines, Iowa; Maj. Jeffrey R. O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; and Chief Warrant Officer Three Robert M. Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, Calif.
The soldiers were in a makeshift office space in Shuaiba Port, with no apparent warning before Tehran attacked them, multiple outlets reported. The incident is under investigation.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson Sean Parnell described the site as a “secure facility fortified with 6-foot walls,” in a post on social platform X on Tuesday.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday attacked several news outlets for their coverage of the service members’ deaths. He claimed that outlets were attempting to make Trump “look bad” and suggested Iran’s weapons capabilities are “what the fake news misses.”
“We’ve taking control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground,” he continued. “We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen it’s front page news. I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality.”
CNN’s White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins questioned Leavitt about this, saying Hegseth was “complaining that it was front-page news about these six servicemembers who were killed.”
Leavitt claimed that was not what the secretary said and accused Collins of being “disingenuous.”
“The press does only want to make the President look bad. That’s a fact,” Leavitt later said, adding, “especially you, and especially CNN.”
Collins later that day defended herself, saying the “coverage of Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country is not about the president, and it’s not about CNN either.”
“It’s about the people that you’re looking at here,” she said before reading the names of the six service members.
