State didn’t seek TRANSCOM aid in evacuating Americans after Iran

The State Department did not task the U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, with evacuating Americans who aren’t affiliated with the federal government from the Middle East after the start of the Iran war, according to responses provided by the military branch to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and shared first with CNBC.

In a May letter to Warren, which followed a request from the Massachusetts Democrat for more information on the evacuation operation in early March, TRANSCOM reported moving more than 1,500 people affiliated with the State Department. But on a series of questions about relocating other U.S. citizens in the region, the command said it “did not receive a tasking to move American civilians (non-U.S. government personnel).”

“The Trump administration put Americans in harm’s way by starting an illegal war in the Middle East, then failed them by neglecting to use every single tool possible to evacuate them quickly and safely,” Warren said in a statement to CNBC. “Donald Trump’s Iran War has put American troops and civilians in danger overseas, jacked up costs for families at home, and destroyed our standing on the world stage — it must end now.”

CNBC has reached out to the State Department and TRANSCOM for comment.

Warren has been critical of the Trump administration’s Iran war, as well as its efforts to extricate Americans stuck in the region after the conflict began in late February.

She pressed TRANSCOM commander Gen. Randall Reed on the response at a March Senate hearing, then followed in April with letters to TRANSCOM seeking more information.

TRANSCOM has in the past been tasked by the State Department to remove Americans from volatile geopolitical situations.

In 2021, TRANSCOM aided in a massive evacuation effort in Afghanistan as U.S. troops and others were pulled from the country. And during the 2006 War between Israel and Hezbollah, TRANSCOM partnered with the State Department to evacuate nearly 15,000 Americans from Lebanon, in what was one of the largest efforts of its kind in recent history, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“The American people have a right to know whether the Trump administration used all the tools at its disposal to evacuate Americans out of the Middle East after President Trump launched an illegal and unconstitutional war that put the lives of Americans across the region in danger,” Warren wrote in her April letter to TRANSCOM.

Americans in the region complained of chaotic and at times confusing communications from the U.S. government after attacks on Iran began in late February. 

In early March, the State Department posted a warning for U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW,” setting off a scramble. Some Americans were stuck in the region for days or weeks as they sought commercial or governmental routes out of the Middle East. 

Under questioning from Warren, Reed, in his Senate testimony in early March said TRANSCOM had assisted in the airlifting of hundreds of Americans out of the region. Warren, however, said that TRANSCOM had told her office in March it had not been contacted by the State Department to aid in the evacuations of Americans working for non-U.S.-government entities.

The apparent discrepancy led Warren to seek clarification.

“There was a significant discrepancy between what my office was told prior to the hearing and the information you provided in the hearing,” Warren wrote in April. “And more than a month after that hearing, my office has yet to receive any information from your command to support your testimony.”

In March, Warren led the Massachusetts delegation in a letter to the State Department criticizing the administration’s lack of preparation in terms of evacuating Americans and pressing for answers on its response.

“Since February 28, more than 120,000 U.S. citizens have safely returned to the United States from the Middle East,” the State Department said in a two-page response in May. “The Department organized more than 60 charter flights and coordinated ground transport options, safely evacuating thousands of Americans from the Middle East while continuing to provide security updates and travel assistance.”

“The Department is ready to assist any American who wishes to leave the region, subject to local security conditions and available transportation,” the State Department wrote.