Trump pushes back on U.S. soldiers' brain injuries: "They had a headache?"

Driving the news The Republican presidential nominee made the comments after being asked Tuesday if he believed he "should have been tougher on Iran" following the attack.

• "What does injured mean? You mean because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort?" Trump said.

Zoom in: Trump told the reporter there was "nobody ever tougher on Iraq" than him, in apparent reference to Iran.

• "When you say not tough, they had no money. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for Hezbollah. And when we hit them, they hit us. And they called us, and they said, 'We're going to shoot at your fort but we're not going to hit it,'" Trump said.
• "And if you were a truthful reporter, which you're not, you would tell the following: None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort," he added. "They all hit outside, and there was nobody hurt other than the sound was loud and some people said that hurt, and I accept that."

Of note: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) noted during his vice presidential debate with Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) that after the 2020 attack happened Trump "wrote off" the troops' injuries as "headaches."

What they're saying: Morgan Finkelstein, a national security spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said via email that as U.S. troops "are in the Middle East supporting Israel in the face of Iran's attacks, Donald Trump is insulting injured service members. He is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief."

• Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment.

Flashback: VFW wants Trump to apologize for minimizing soldiers' injuries in Iraq

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with comment from Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein.