Data: ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data). Chart: Axios Visuals («Other» includes Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela — as well as the waters off Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.)
No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many countries as Donald Trump, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.
- He has attacked seven nations, three of which — Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela — had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more airstrikes in 2025 than President Biden did in four years.
Why it matters: Trump ran as an anti-war candidate. The White House argues he still is — that he exhausts diplomacy before acting, and that projecting overwhelming force is itself a path to lasting peace.
- The deaths of three U.S. service members in the first 24 hours of Trump’s Iran strikes puts that argument to its most brutal test.
- «Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is,» Trump said in a video statement yesterday. «But we’ll do everything possible where that won’t be the case,» he added, vowing to «avenge their deaths.»
The big picture: Trump’s strikes are historically distinctive not just in number but in kind.
- President Bush’s post-9/11 campaigns and President Obama’s drone wars were massive in scale — but concentrated in inherited or congressionally authorized theaters.
- Alongside traditional counterterrorism efforts, Trump has opened new fronts — a Christmas Day strike in Nigeria, drug boats sunk in the Caribbean, Nicolás Maduro snatched from Caracas.
- His preferred model is consistent: no boots on the ground, no lengthy entanglements, overwhelming force applied quickly and framed as essential to defending American interests.
Zoom in: The ongoing U.S. military operation against Iran now stands in a league of its own — the most aggressive, high-risk foreign policy act of Trump’s presidency.
- Trump launched Operation Epic Fury — a joint U.S.–Israeli campaign explicitly aimed at toppling Iran’s government — without congressional authorization or sustained public debate.
- It was preceded by the largest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq — a warning to Iran that failed talks in Geneva would have consequences.
Zoom out: Trump outlined multiple targets for an operation he said could last four weeks: destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles, its rocket factories and its navy.
- Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was assassinated by Israeli strikes in the first 24 hours, along with dozens of senior regime officials.
- U.S. and Israeli strikes show no sign of letting up, as Iran’s retaliatory missiles and drones batter Gulf allies.
Back home, some of Trump’s most loyal supporters are struggling to square this war with the candidate they elected.
- Several MAGA influencers resurfaced a warning last June from the late activist Charlie Kirk, who called regime change in Iran «insane» and predicted it would result in «a bloody civil war.»