Warren: State Department didn't seek TRANSCOM aid in evacuating Americans from Middle East

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and ranking member of 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 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.