Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick issued a public apology on Thursday after stating in a television interview that no American service members had been killed in the ongoing conflict with Iran—a claim that contradicted official U.S. military figures.

“I misspoke. Eighteen 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,” Lutnick wrote in a post on X.

The apology came one day after Lutnick made the remarks during a CNBC interview, in which Venezuela was not mentioned at all. “I think the way the president is playing Iran… There haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic choke-out, which the administration is now executing more broadly, and I think it’ll be very effective,” Lutnick had told CNBC.

Moments before Lutnick’s apology, President Trump defended his commerce secretary on Truth Social. “Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!” Trump wrote.

To date, the U.S. has reported 18 military personnel killed and more than 750 wounded in the Iran conflict.