President Donald Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with Iran’s selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, who was appointed after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike at the start of Operation Epic Fury.
Trump stated that he does not believe Mojtaba Khamenei “can live in peace” and commented that the timeline of the U.S. operation has exceeded expectations regarding results at this early stage. U.S. and Israeli operations in Iran are “way beyond expectation in terms of results this early.”
Trump warned in a Truth Social post on Monday that Iran will be struck “twenty times harder” if the regime does anything to obstruct the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz. The president also said the U.S. would “take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back” as a nation, but that he does not want the situation to get to that point.
The U.S. and Israeli militaries launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, targeting over 5,000 locations and damaging or destroying more than 50 Iranian ships within the first 10 days, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The operation focused on various strategic points, including command and control centers, headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), intelligence sites, integrated air defense systems, ballistic missile sites, and facilities related to the Iranian Navy, submarines, and military communications.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shared an update on Thursday on the United States’ “highly successful” campaign against Iran.
“To date, we’ve struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure. That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was,” Hegseth said.
“As I’ve said from day one, our capabilities continued to build, Iran’s continue to degrade. We’re hunting and striking death and destruction from above. Iran’s air defenses, flattened. Iran’s defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed. We’ve hit hundreds of their defense industrial base directly,” he added.
“Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all. Ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90% since the start of the conflict, same with one-way attack UAVs, think kamikaze drones, down 90%. Now, the Iranians will still shoot, we know that, but they would shoot a lot more if they could. But they can’t,” he said.
“We have damaged or sunk over 120 of their navy ships with battle damage assessments pending for many more. See, oftentimes you have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number. Their surface fleet is no longer a factor, their submarines, they once had eleven, are gone. Their military ports are crippled. Iran has terrorized the United States and our interests for 47 years,” Hegseth declared.
“Their core industries, not steel or agriculture, tourism, their core industries are state-sponsored terrorism, proxy militias, underground networks, ballistic missiles and a violent, Messianic, Islamist ideology chasing some sort of apocalyptic end game. A regime like that refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem, it’s a direct threat to America, to freedom and to civilization,” he said.
Hegseth added, “The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump: Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terrorist state from holding the world hostage with missiles, while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.”
