Gary Peters

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Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) on Wednesday took on President Donald Trump for describing his unpopular Iran war as a “skirmish” just hours after attending the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict.

“Well, certainly this is not a skirmish. That’s really a mischaracterization of what’s happening,” began Peters, a minority member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, in an appearance on MS NOW.

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He continued, “This is a war. People die. It impacts people in a major way.”

Peters later slammed Trump — who has referred to his congressionally unauthorized war as a “short excursion” and a “little detour” — for “deceiving” Americans by “downplaying the implications” of the deadly conflict.

“When you have people coming back as casualties and families that are grieving, this is a president that’s disconnected from the kind of humanity that we expect in the leader of our country,” he said.

During a rally in Marietta, Georgia, Trump returned to his talk of the war being a “skirmish,” arguing that he uses the term because Iran is “getting hit so hard and they want to make a deal.”

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One of the four fallen soldiers’ families was on hand at the rally, per Politico.

“What we’re seeing here is a failure of leadership,” said Peters, who went after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Peters stressed that the country is being led by those who don’t have any idea about the strategic objectives of — or how to win — the war, before pointing to the Pentagon reportedly withholding information on troops’ injuries.

“There are costs in every war and every life is sacred, and we don’t see that kind of attitude from the president, which I think is completely despicable,” he said.

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Trump’s comments arrived on the same day he was accused of trying to score political points by claiming that the fallen soldiers voiced support for the war.