The country did not seek TRANSCOM’s help in getting Americans out from behind Iran
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, during a hearing in Washington, April 21, 2026.
Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The State Department did not blame the US Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, for evacuating non-federal Americans from the Middle East after the start of the Iran war, according to answers given by the military branch to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and shared first with CNBC.
In a May letter to Warren, which followed a Massachusetts Democrat’s request for more information about the evacuation operation in early March, TRANSCOM reported that it was moving more than 1,500 people working with the State Department. But in a series of questions about moving some US citizens to the region, the command said it “did not receive the task of moving US citizens (non-US workers).”
“The Trump administration put the American people at risk by starting an illegal war in the Middle East, then negligently failed to use every tool to get them out quickly and safely,” Warren said in a statement sent to CNBC. “Donald Trump’s war on Iran has put American soldiers and civilians at risk overseas, cost families at home, and undermined our standing in the world – 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 war on Iran, and its efforts to evict Americans stuck in the region after the conflict began in late February.
He pressed the commander of TRANSCOM, Gen. Randall Reed in response to a March Senate hearing, then followed up in April with letters to TRANSCOM seeking more information.
TRANSCOM was previously tasked by the State Department with getting Americans out of volatile political situations.
In 2021, TRANSCOM assisted in a major evacuation effort from Afghanistan as US troops and others were pulled out of 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 has used every tool at its disposal to get Americans out of the Middle East after President Trump launched an illegal and unconstitutional war that put American lives at risk across the region,” Warren wrote in his April letter to TRANSCOM.
Americans in the region complained of chaos and sometimes confused communication with the US government after the attack on Iran in late February.
In early March, the State Department sent a warning to American citizens to “MOVE NOW,” and the protests began. Some Americans are stuck in the region for days or weeks as they search for commercial or government routes out of the Middle East.
Under Warren’s questioning, Reed, in his Senate testimony in early March, said that TRANSCOM helped airlift large numbers of Americans out of the region. Warren, however, said TRANSCOM told his office in March that it had not been contacted by the State Department to assist in the removal of Americans working for non-US government agencies.
The apparent discrepancy led Warren to seek clarification.
“There were significant discrepancies between what my office was told prior to the hearing and the information you provided at the hearing,” Warren wrote in April. “And more than a month after that hearing, my office has not received any information from your order 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 for removing Americans and demanding answers to their response.
“As of February 28, more than 120,000 US citizens have returned safely 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 travel options, safely evacuating thousands of Americans from the Middle East while continuing to provide security updates and travel assistance.”
“The Department stands ready to assist any American wishing to travel to the region, subject to local security conditions and available transportation,” the State Department wrote.
