Overnight, President Donald Trump announced the launch of “major combat operations” in Iran, described as part of “Operation Epic Fury.” The move came eight weeks after the administration sent helicopter-borne special forces into Caracas to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Reports from inside the White House state that Trump’s military advisers, including Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed the president against a full-scale attack on Iran, warning it could cost American lives and degrade already depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles. Trump publicly dismissed a Washington Post report that Caine was “against us going to War with Iran,” calling it “100% incorrect.”
The context described includes ongoing efforts by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to pressure Iran and a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East and Mediterranean. The president also cited a message to Norway’s prime minister stating that, after being denied the Nobel Peace Prize, he “no longer feel[s] an obligation to think purely of Peace.”