Trump’s administration has launched forceful actions against Iran and Venezuela, intensifying counterterrorism operations in Africa and the Middle East, and dramatically increasing targeted strikes across Latin America.
Despite a second-term pledge to end US involvement in costly and destructive foreign wars, President Donald Trump has initiated a full-scale offensive to topple the Iranian government just more than a year after returning to office. The strikes mark a dramatic escalation in his administration’s reliance on raw military power to batter adversaries and force political concessions.
Trump’s administration has launched forceful actions against Iran and Venezuela, intensifying counterterrorism operations in Africa and the Middle East, and dramatically increasing targeted strikes across Latin America.
Here’s a closer look at Trump’s widening military footprint since January 2025.
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Iran
Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in the US-Israel strike, calling his death “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country”. Trump called Khamenei “one of the most evil men in history” and asserted that the cleric “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems”. He further warned that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue “uninterrupted”, signaling a potentially prolonged and aggressive military campaign.
Trump described the strikes as “major combat operations” aimed squarely at regime change in Tehran. The scale of the current campaign appears far more expansive than a previous US attack in June 2025, which targeted nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan while Iran was engaged in diplomatic talks with Washington.
Referring to that earlier assault, Trump declared the strikes had “obliterated” the country’s nuclear capabilities. Both rounds of attacks have been deemed illegal under international law.
The June offensive unfolded during a 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran that killed more than 600 Iranians.
Venezuela: Caracas Bombed, Maduro Abducted
In January 2026, the Trump administration struck Venezuela, bombing the capital Caracas and abducting President Nicolas Maduro.
According to Venezuela’s defence minister, 83 people were killed in the attack, including members of Venezuelan and Cuban security services as well as civilians.
Latin America: Drug War or Shadow Conflict?
Since September, US forces have carried out at least 45 strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels across Latin America and the Caribbean, killing at least 151 people, according to watchdog group Airwars.
Trump and his allies argue the strikes are part of a broader war on narcotics, declaring several criminal organisations as foreign terrorist groups and asserting that drug trafficking constitutes an armed attack on the United States.
However, UN officials and international law experts have forcefully rejected that rationale, describing the campaign as illegal extrajudicial killings that dangerously blur the line between crime and armed conflict.
Nigeria,: Powerful and Deadly Strikes
In Nigeria, Trump deployed 100 US military personnel to train local forces and threatened direct action if authorities failed to address what he described as a “genocide” of Christians by Muslim groups.
Nigerian officials dispute that characterisation, saying it misrepresents a complex and long-running civil conflict as religious persecution.
In December 2025, Trump announced the US had carried out “powerful and deadly” strikes against what he said were ISIL (ISIS) affiliates in northwestern Nigeria, in coordination with the government. Yet questions quickly surfaced over whether ISIL even operates in the targeted region.
Somalia: Record Air Campaign
The US has also intensified air strikes in Somalia, where it has long partnered with the government against armed groups including al-Shabab and a regional ISIL offshoot.
According to the New America Foundation, the US conducted at least 111 strikes in Somalia in 2025 alone, surpassing the combined totals of the George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden administrations.
Yemen,: Civilian Toll and War Crime Allegations
Between March and May 2025, US forces launched dozens of naval and air strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi movement, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of civilians.
The Houthis had targeted vessels in the Red Sea, pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza.
Human Rights Watch reported in June that a US strike on Ras Isa port in Hodeidah in April 2025 killed more than 80 civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.
A ceasefire brokered by Oman was later announced in May.
Syria,: “Very Serious Retaliation”
In December 2025, US forces struck ISIL targets in Syria following an attack in Palmyra that killed two US soldiers and a translator.
Trump said the US was “inflicting very serious retaliation” against those responsible. The Syrian government later said the attack was carried out by a state security employee who was due to be expelled over hardline views.
Iraq: “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”
In March 2025, a US strike in Iraq’s al-Anbar province killed Abdallah “Abu Khadijah” Malli Muslih al-Rifai, identified as ISIL’s second-in-command, along with another operative.
“His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”
From Latin American waters to African airspace and Middle Eastern battlefields, Trump’s second term has been marked not by military restraint but by rapid escalation.
