US President Donald Trump speaks with the media as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on aboard Air Force One during a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images) Donald Trump speaks with the media as Pete Hegseth looks on aboard Air Force One during a flight from Dover, Del., to Miami, Fla,. on March 7, 2026. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump claimed that Iran, not the U.S., struck an elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab, the attack with the highest civilian death toll in Trump’s second Iran war.

Three current and former defense officials, however, pushed back on his claims. Even Trump’s own Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, refused to back him up. U.S. Central Command appeared to suggest that Trump’s comments were “inappropriate.”

“This is another instance of Trump lying and just talking out of his ass,” said a U.S. government official who reviewed satellite images of the Shajarah Tayyebeh school. “This clearly was not a failed rocket from the IRGC base.”

The U.S. official was referring to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy base that was adjacent to the school. The claim that the IRGC struck the school spread as part of a misinformation campaign about the attack peddled by social media accounts that support restoring Iran’s monarchy.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, said it was clear that Iran did not strike the school. Trump, however, endorsed the dubious claim when taking questions from the press aboard Air Force One on Saturday.