Has Donald Trump checked out of being president already? Or is he not paying attention to his briefings, even if he’s having them at all?
Those are among the questions being raised after a moment this week when the president appeared unaware of some American soldiers who went missing in Lithuania.
Per HuffPost, four U.S. soldiers are missing as part of a NATO training exercise in that country. On Wednesday, a reporter asked if he had been briefed about the situation, and Trump replied, “No, I haven’t,” in a way that made it appear that this was the first he was hearing of the missing soldiers.
this is an absolutely shocking statement from POTUS. Four US troops died in Lithuania, news of it was reported hours ago, and Trump is completely clueless pic.twitter.com/auvOq2TgXg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2025
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Also on Wednesday, NATO clarified earlier statements from NATO’s Secretary General that he had received word that the four missing soldiers had died. The Army says that the soldiers’ vehicle was found submerged in water but that the search remained ongoing by the Army, Lithuanian armed forces, and civilian agencies.
The four soldiers are part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, was one of the first former Soviet Republics to break away from the USSR during the waning days of the Cold War and is now a member of NATO.
“The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing U.S. Soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania,” the Army said in a statement on Wednesday. “The vehicle was discovered submerged in a body of water in a training area after a search by the U.S. Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces, and other Lithuanian authorities. Recovery efforts are underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies. Search efforts for the Soldiers continue.”
Quite a few people noticed the contrast between this moment and when four U.S. military contractors were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012:
Republicans when Benghazi occurred:
“ARREST HER!!! PUT HER IN JAIL!!! CRUCIFY HER!!!! GET HER!!!”
Republicans when four soldiers are dead in Lithuania under Trump:
CRICKETS!!!!!! ZERO OUTRAGED REPUBLICANS!!!!
— Jay McGill Says Abolish the Political Extremes (@Jay_McGill94) March 27, 2025
Here’s something strange: For years, all Republicans could do was talk about and hold hearings on Benghazi – so where is their outage about the four U.S. soldiers lost in Lithuania on *Trump’s* watch?
— LaurenBaratzLogsted (@LaurenBaratzL) March 27, 2025
In the absence of investigative detail we can only assume who is responsible for 4 U.S. solders and their vehicle to go missing while training near a Russian ally to later be found having been killed.
This is on Trump’s watch. pic.twitter.com/eS51J5vTvg— DSgtMomCJ./TheOl’GoatLady🇺🇸🗽💙🇺🇦🐾😷💉 (@CJDeR53) March 26, 2025
Photo courtesy of an X Screenshot.
