President Donald Trump has presided over a rapid surge of U.S. military activity abroad since returning to the Oval Office.

In the first year of his second term, he authorized a series of strikes ranging from the unprecedented use of bunker-buster bombs against Iran’s most fortified nuclear sites to a sustained counternarcotics campaign off the Venezuelan coast.

Trump, who has labeled himself a “peace president,” frames the expansion of force as a strategy of “peace through strength.”

At his inaugural ball in January, he declared, “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.” He added that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”

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Here is where the U.S. military operated overseas in 2025. In Somalia actions began in February and continued, marking the first major strike in the new term against the Islamic State in Somalia.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the strikes aimed to degrade ISIS’ ability to “plot and conduct terrorist attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians.”

The campaign reflected a steady American presence against ISIS affiliates across East Africa, a mission aligned with the broader goal of preventing terrorist networks from taking root.

In Iraq, a U.S.-led coalition strike in Anbar Province on March 13 killed ISIS’ second-highest ranking leader, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, and one other insurgent. Iraq’s prime minister described al-Rifai as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.”

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The operation underscored the administration’s willingness to strike high-value targets to disrupt the organization’s command and control networks.

From March 15 to May 6, Yemen saw a targeted air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The strikes targeted command-and-control hubs, air defense systems and facilities used for manufacturing and storing advanced weapons, according to the Pentagon.

The offensive used long-range missiles and cruise missiles and cost more than a billion dollars in its first month. The operation concluded on May 6 following an Oman-brokered ceasefire with the Houthis, yet the footprint of U.S. strikes remained.

On June 22, Operation Midnight Hammer deployed seven B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base to strike Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facilities.

The bombers dropped 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance penetrators on Fordo and Natanz, while a U.S. Navy submarine in the region launched more than a dozen Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan.

Trump, in a primetime address, declared the mission achieved “total obliteration” of Iran’s enrichment capabilities, though Tehran disputed that assessment.

The Pentagon estimates the strikes likely set back Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, a claim that has shaped the strategic debate about deterrence and regional balance.

Since September, the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific have seen a sustained maritime campaign against drug cartels and narcotics networks linked to Venezuela. Trump boasts that the deployment involves the “largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” and pledged it will “only get bigger.”

At least 106 people have been killed in strikes on alleged drug-carrying vessels, a toll that supporters say underscores the urgency of cutting off a deadly supply chain feeding the United States.

In Syria, Operation Hawkeye Strike was launched on December 19 to avenge the deaths of two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed in a terrorist attack.

American fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery struck more than 70 suspected ISIS targets across central Syria, according to CENTCOM. The operation was named in honor of the fallen soldiers from Iowa, the “Hawkeye State.”

On Christmas Day, 2025, Trump announced airstrikes against ISIS in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. He said he acted to protect Christians who he asserts are being “mass slaughtered” by “radical Islamists,” and chose the date for symbolic reasons.

“They were going to do it earlier,” Trump said in an interview, “And I said, ‘nope, let’s give a Christmas present.’” The operation involved more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea and was coordinated with the Nigerian military.

A drone strike by the CIA inside Venezuela marked the first known U.S. attack inside the country since the campaign against Maduro intensified. The strike targeted a dock along Venezuela’s coast used by the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua to store narcotics and potentially prepare them for shipment, according to CNN.

The year closed with a clear statement from Washington: the United States would pursue pressure campaigns and precision strikes when necessary to protect American citizens and allies, while arguing that the path to lasting security runs through a disciplined, resolute use of force when diplomacy falters.

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