President Donald Trump recently claimed that American soldiers wounded by Iranian roadside bombs in Iraq were “walking around with no legs.” The president dropped the remark while speaking to reporters during a college sports roundtable at the White House on Friday.

The event brought together notable figures from the sports and political arenas, including Tiger Woods, Nick Saban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, to address the NCAA’s policies surrounding name, image, and likeness.

Even though the event was mostly about sports, the reporters were eager to ask about Trump’s ongoing war with Iran.

Peter Doocy, the senior White House correspondent for Fox News, tried to ask Donald Trump about reports that Russia had given Iran U.S. military intelligence.

Trump said that he respected Doocy and appreciated how the reporter had treated him in the past, but he thought the question was inappropriate and that the conversation should have been about something else.

Later in the event, Trump went back to Doocy and said he could ask another question, calling the first question a bad one. Doocy asked the president why he was doing this now, saying that there were many other important things going on in the world.

Trump said that the U.S. was doing very well in Iran. He said that when someone asked him to rate the situation on a scale from zero to 10, he thought the results were higher than that and suggested a score closer to 12 or 15 out of 10.

Trump also asserted that Iran’s military structure had essentially been wiped out, stating that its army no longer existed, its navy had been destroyed, its communications capabilities had been wiped out, and its leaders were gone. 

He then shifted the conversation to the Iraq war and reflected on how wounded American soldiers were left to suffer after being attacked by roadside bombs.

The president said, “The situation is with a very bad and very sick group of leaders, who were killing a lot of people.” He further added, “A lot of our people were being killed. They were being maimed. They were being destroyed with their bombs all over the place, planted in roads, and we called them the roadside bombs. Walking around without legs, without arms, face blasted. Killed many, many people.”

Social media users were quick to mock the president over his remark. One user said, “Wait! ‘Walking’ around with no legs?? Does he know how walking works?”

Another user wrote, “He thinks he’s so clever when he goes off script and off the teleprompter, all to deliver gems like this. God help us all.” Another comment said, “If Biden had said this, it would have been 72pt font NYT/WSJ headlines FOR WEEKS!.”

Donald Trump was in Miami to attend a fundraising event organized by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Earlier that day, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was spending the day handling a series of important meetings and calls.

Even though the president has long championed an “America First” agenda focused on U.S. interests, Trump, who was also seen golfing amid the war, indicated Monday that the conflict mainly served the interests of other countries, particularly nations reliant on oil shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz, according to The Associated Press.