MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base today to attend the dignified transfer of the remains of U.S. service members killed by Iranian strikes.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'll be going to Dover for something that I feel is - it's a great honor for me to do it.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Honoring those killed in action is one of the most solemn responsibilities for a president. But for Trump, the rising number of casualties has added significance. It highlights the mounting questions about the Iran war.
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is with us now to tell us more about this. Morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: You know, the American public has always been ambivalent about this war, but the criticism has generally been framed in economic terms. I'm wondering if the losses of these troops might change that.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, if the casualties continue to rise, it could change a lot. I mean, the public does not like seeing U.S. citizens killed in a war, especially a war that they don't necessarily understand or maybe don't think is necessary right now. I was talking with Justin Logan, who directs foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, and he told me that the challenge of, you know, reduced munitions, for example, is kind of this abstract idea to most Americans. But what's not abstract at all is Americans coming back in, you know, flag-draped coffins.
JUSTIN LOGAN: I think the president knows he's playing with fire here. The public doesn't like this conflict, but they're not that exercised about it as yet. He knows that the one way to get them exercised about it is to have large amounts of Americans coming home in flag-draped coffins.
ORDOÑEZ: You know, and Logan noted that the death of one of those service members - a young woman from Texas, who's 19 - seems to be striking a chord with people in the sense that there are young people dying in this war where the goals are unclear. And he said that the more Americans who die, the more questions are going to be asked about what the aims of the war, in fact, are.
MARTIN: Reporters asked Trump about his long-term plan in Iran yesterday, noting that Iran doesn't seem to be showing any indication that it wants to stop fighting. How did he respond?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, Michel, he got a little testy arguing with the reporters that they don't actually know what's really happening, and again, insisting that Iran is anxious to stop the fighting.
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TRUMP: Why? Do you know something that I don't know?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Well, they continue to attack our allies and kill Americans.
TRUMP: You don't know what the dialogue is behind the scenes, that they want to meet desperately to try and end it because they're getting decimated.
ORDOÑEZ: And yet Trump also said that Iran is not ready to meet in a, quote, "meaningful way," and therefore, he has no interest in doing so. It really just shows a very bleak assessment of where the negotiations stand right now, even after 11 days of continuous strikes.
MARTIN: This war has already stretched months longer than Trump predicted and told Americans that it would. Are there other ways it's becoming a political problem for the White House?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, I think there's just real uncertainty of when this is actually going to end. You know, the defense secretary was also on Capitol Hill as well yesterday asking for billions more to cover the costs of the war. All that is likely to have political impacts, especially as the midterms approach.
Now, Trump ran for office criticizing past wars in the Middle East, and now the U.S. is at war in the Middle East. Trump wants to sell Americans on this narrative that things are going great in the U.S., that the stock market is hitting record highs, that inflation is dropping. But having Americans serving overseas killed by Iranian strikes runs counter to that.
MARTIN: That is White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Franco, thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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