Trump promised to end ‘forever wars'. Five months in, he has matched Biden's bombing record

Telegraph

6 days ago

Donald Trump has overseen nearly as many air strikes in the first five months of his second term as Joe Biden launched in his entire presidency.
The US president's onslaughts on Houthi militants in Yemen and jihadists in Somalia have been more ferocious than Mr Biden's, and he has ordered strikes on Iraq, Syria and most recently, Iran.
After campaigning on a pledge to end American involvement in military conflicts, he has sharply escalated the country's air campaigns, according to the data from Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data), which maps conflicts.
Mr Trump has overseen 529 air strikes since his inauguration, compared with 555 over the entire four years of the previous administration.
Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia were already being targeted by the previous administration, but Mr Trump opened up a new front with strikes on Iran's nuclear programme.
'The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints,' said Prof Clionadh Raleigh, chief executive of Acled, highlighting the intensity of the bombing campaigns.
Mr Trump insists that his intense approach ensures 'peace through strength', an expression often attributed to Ronald Reagan.
'We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. It's called peace through strength,' Mr Trump said in a speech during his inaugural ball.
He has not struck Libya or Afghanistan, and air strikes are often seen as a more clinical alternative to putting US boots on the ground as Barack Obama did.
But the new data have been published amid tensions within Mr Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base over whether he should be pursuing foreign military interventions at all.
Prominent MAGA figures including Tucker Carlson last month complained that striking Iran ran against Mr Trump's 'America First' isolationist promises.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a high profile MAGA loyalist and critic of intervention, said there was a 'very big divide' in Mr Trump's base over the issue and that she was 'sick of' foreign entanglements.
She said last month: 'I got elected on the exact same campaign promises that President Trump got elected on. We promised no more foreign wars, no more regime change.'
Yet polling at the time of the strikes showed Mr Trump's base in fact strongly backed him, with 84 per cent of MAGA supporters agreeing with the strikes, including 70 per cent who strongly supported them.
That compared with 72 per cent of traditional Republicans supporting the strikes, with 49 per cent strongly supporting them.
Prof Raleigh said the new data showed that America was not 'stepping back' under Mr Trump.
She said: 'Trump's preference for engagement begs the question: does this contradict his promise to end America's wars – or are the foreign strikes how he wishes to keep that promise?
'The recent airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites have been framed as a major turning point in US foreign policy. But if you take a step back, they don't stand out – they fit.
'In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US air strikes as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration.
'The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isn't about geography – it's about frequency.'
The great majority of Mr Trump's strikes have been in Yemen, where in March he dramatically escalated the US air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants menacing Red Sea shipping.
The militants have proven stubbornly resilient to US firepower and last week sank two ships, despite having been hit by 470 strikes since January, according to the Acled data. This came at a cost of more than $1 billion to the US military.
Mr Trump has also ramped up strikes in Somalia, where US forces have been hitting the local Islamic State group and also Al-Shabaab.
In March, the White House announced that it had killed an Isis attack planner in Somalia.
Mr Trump said jubilantly: 'Our Military has targeted this Isis attack planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn't act quickly enough to get the job done.
'I did! The message to Isis and all others who would attack Americans is that 'we will find you, and we will kill you'.'
Prof Raleigh said: 'While Trump has repeatedly promised to end America's 'forever wars', he has rarely elaborated on how [this will take].
'These early months suggest the plan may be to use overwhelming firepower to end fights before they begin, or before they drag on.'
The White House insisted Mr Trump was projecting 'peace through strength'.
A post on the White House Website read: 'President Donald J Trump will always put the American people first – and through restoring the US military's mission of lethality and leading with peace through strength in his foreign policy, President Trump is making good on his commitment to restore safety and security around the world.'
But that strategy comes at a cost, said Prof Raleigh.
'For civilians, it's a renewed danger with little warning. For US allies, it raises concerns about co-ordination and unpredictability. And, for lawmakers, it deepens concerns about executive power and accountability.
'So, is Trump aiming to end wars by escalating quickly and decisively, or is this a return to high-risk, low-accountability foreign policy? Is air power being used to avoid deeper conflict, or just manage from above?
'What is clear: the US isn't stepping back. It's moving faster, striking first, and saving the conversations for later.'
Mr Trump's strikes have mainly been focused on the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and culminated in an extraordinary assault on Iran.
Iran
The June strikes on Tehran's nuclear programme marked a major shift in the United States' Middle East policy.
After days of Israeli strikes on Iran, Mr Trump ordered raids on three nuclear facilities.
The key strike was on Iran's secretive 'nuclear mountain', the Fordow fuel enrichment plant buried deep underground where more than 2,000 centrifuges enrich uranium to 60 per cent.
A sortie of B2 stealth bombers dropped the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator 'bunker buster' bombs, specifically designed to attack deeply buried and hardened tunnels.
US intelligence agencies are thought to be compiling a final audit of the damage caused by the roughly 30,000lb bombs after contradictory early assessments.
Mr Trump said Iran's nuclear programme had been obliterated in 'one of the most successful military strikes in history', but an early Pentagon assessment suggested limited damage.
Iraq
On March 13, the US Central Command (Centcom) reported it had killed one of the Islamic State group's leaders in an air strike in Al Anbar Province.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, also known by the alias 'Abu Khadijah', was described as the group's number two.
As chief of global operations and emir of its most senior decision-making body, he was responsible for logistics and planning, as well as a significant portion of the group's finances.
Gen Michael Kurilla, Centcom commander, said at the time: 'Abu Khadijah was one of the most important Isis members in the entire global Isis organisation.
'We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organisations that threaten our homeland and US, allied and partner personnel in the region and beyond.'
He died alongside an associate, and both men were wearing suicide vests at the time of their deaths, the US military said. His death was confirmed by a DNA match.
Syria
On June 10, the US military said it had killed an Islamic State group commander in an air strike in north-west Syria on June 10. The commander, who was named as Rakhim Boev, was said to have been involved in planning attacks on the US and its allies outside Syria.
A photograph accompanying the announcement showed a mangled Kia vehicle with its windscreen smashed and damage similar to previous strikes using the specialist R9X 'Ninja bomb'.
The missile is designed to reduce the chances of civilian casualties by using its weight and a ring of blades to kill rather than exploding.
The missile, which was developed from the more common Hellfire armament, has in recent years been used on targets in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.
Mr Trump's Syrian strikes have come as his administration has begun reducing the number of American troops in the country from more than 2,000 to around 500.
The drawdown has taken place as the Trump administration has recognised Ahmed al-Sharaa as the president of Syria. Under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, Al Sharaa previously headed Al Qaeda in Syria, deposing long-time dictator Bashar al Assad.
Somalia
On Feb 1, the US military said it had conducted 'multiple' air strikes against the Islamic State group in Somalia. The strikes against cave complexes in the Cal Miskaad area of the Golis mountains killed at least 14 militants including an Omani called Ahmed Maeleninine.
American commanders described him as a 'recruiter, financier, and external operations leader responsible for the deployment of jihadists into the United States and across Europe'.
Abdifitah Mohamed Abdinur, the Puntland state minister for the presidency, said at the time of the strike that Somalia and its allies had been watching Maeleninine's movements in the region.
He said: 'He was an Omani-born man in his 40s who was wanted for international crimes and his movements and activities have been followed at least for the last two years, as he was hiding in the mountainous area of Puntland.
'He was a thorn removed from the flesh of Somalis and the world population, and he eventually tasted what he deserved.'
Yemen
Strikes on Yemen account for the great majority of US missions overseen by Mr Trump, after he sharply escalated the campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants in mid-March.
While the US military has given few specific details of individual strikes, Acled has recorded 470 inside the country since January.
In early April, Mr Trump posted video footage of what he said were Houthi rebels gathering before they were struck. The 25-second clip showed a group starting to gather, before an explosion left only two trucks visible and a deep crater in the ground, as smoke cleared.
'These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack,' Mr Trump wrote alongside the black-and-white aerial footage. 'Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis. They will never sink our ships again,' he wrote.
Yahya Saree, a Houthi spokesman, denied the gathering was linked to the rebels. He said: 'Does the US take pride in such an act? This was a tribal gathering that had nothing to do with your ships.'