What Does the Data Say: The War President

By Dr. Wornie Reed Ph.D

Donald Trump criticized the engagement of United States in wars since the Vietnam War, promising that he would keep America out of foreign wars.

Ludicrously and shamelessly, Tramp lobbied for the Nobel Peace, all the while labelling the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” and launching military action in seven countries and promising more.

We should remember that during the presidential campaign in 2024 Trump and his associates criticized Democrats for their supposed penchant for war, claiming that “Kamala will send your sons to war.”

This wasn’t just a casual talking point; Trump and people close to his campaign emphasized it in the closing weeks, pointing to the fact that hawkish Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney was supporting Harris.

“You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,’” Trump said less than a week before Election Day.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller added: “Liz Cheney is Kamala’s top advisor. Liz wants to invade the whole Middle East. Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace.”

“A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney and a vote for war, war and more war,” Trump’s now-director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said. “A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to end wars, not start them.”

After returning to office in 2025, Trump proved to be “trigger happy,” expanding counterterrorism operations that included bombing targets in Iraq, Nigeria, and Somalia. He also ordered the U.S. military to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, responded to attacks against U.S. service members in Syria, and targeted Houthi militants in Yemen.

In early 2026, after months of military buildup in the Caribbean and U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats, which might be war crimes, the Trump Administration bombed Venezuela and captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. In late February 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran after Trump declared nuclear negotiations a failure–negotiations and war being unnecessary had he not withdrawn the U.S. from the Obama-negotiated treaty with Iran.

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The Trump Administration’s attacks on alleged drug boats, its bombing of nuclear facilities in Iran, and the capture of Maduro are well known. However, there were several other military attacks in other countries.

In response to Israel’s war in Gaza, Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels began attacking commercial ships and U.S. naval vessels in the Red Sea, as well as Israeli cities. For more than a year, the U.S. and its allies, including the U.K., conducted military strikes against the Houthis. Trump intensified the attacks in 2025, with mixed results. However, following the announcement of the Gaza ceasefire in October 2025, the Houthis halted their strikes.

In March of 2025 the U.S. carried out targeted strikes against ISIS in Iraq, continuing actions that had begun under Obama in 2014. Trump praised his actions as demonstrating “peace through strength.”

Beginning in February 2025, the Trump administration expanded the counterterrorism efforts in Somalia, launching 126 operations and killing nearly two hundred ISIS militants.

In northern Nigeria violent Islamist insurgent groups have been conducting terrorist attacks on civilians. The Trump administration expressed concern about targeting Christians and carried out guided missile attacks against the terrorists. Nigeria welcomed the military assistance but insisted that the terrorists had a history of indiscriminate killing, not just against Christians.

Last December, the U.S. military struck against ISIS in Syria, responding to an attack on the city of Palmyra that killed two U.S. soldiers. Defense Secretary Pet Hegseth called it “a declaration of vengeance.”

In 2025 alone, the Trump Administration conducted more military operations than the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations combined. That’s 20 years.

Trump has also threatened to launch military action in Colombia and suggested the United States would attack Greenland by force.

A war president indeed.

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