US President Donald Trump has declared that Operation Epic Fury is over, in a resounding wave of applause for the victory it clearly brings with it. Or at least his administration has said that the war against Iran is over for now.
Almost two months after the United States and Israel launched a series of military attacks against Iran, it seems that peace might be on the horizon. Or it might not, who knows with Trump, given how fast his decisions change.
However, at least for now, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking with the press on Thursday, declared that “Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We’re not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What Trump would prefer is a deal… that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen.”
The large-scale military campaign called “Operation Epic Fury” was launched by US President Donald Trump, along with the Israeli government, on February 28, and was aimed at Iran and an effort to stop their nuclear ambitions.
This led to extreme levels of unrest in Tehran, the killing of the late Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and Iran launching its own counter-attacks against US allies in the Gulf and West Asia, along with also closing the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint of global supply of a number of very necessary items.
So, here we take a look at the 7 victories, epic achievements that Donald Trump and his administration earned with this very much needed US-Iran war.
1. Making Oil Unaffordable For Everyone Across The Globe
Within days of Operation Epic Fury beginning on February 28, the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, was blocked.
This led to stranded tankers and triggered a supply shock that Brent Crude prices responded to with extraordinary enthusiasm, surging past $120 per barrel.
Herman Nieuwoudt, president of IFS Energy and Resources, told CNBC, “This is headed toward sustained, compounding cost pressure across every industry that touches fuel, which is effectively every industry.”
This surge in oil prices did not just hit Americans, but the entire world. With oil prices surging, practically every industry that used it in some way or form was badly hit.
India itself saw an alarmingly low supply of LPG gas, that lead to a crisis among the general public. Things like petrol, CNG, plastic, jet fuel, cremation and many other things became difficult because of high oil prices.
2. Iran: Begging, Broken, And Completely On Its Knees. Sort of. Actually, Not at All.
In early April, Trump set a deadline and declared that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would be acceptable.
By early May, the United States had, by most analysts’ assessments, quietly accepted Iran’s terms for how to structure the negotiations, placing economic and security issues ahead of nuclear demands, not the other way around, which had been Washington’s original position.
The sequence of events between those two moments tells you nearly everything you need to know about which party blinked first.
Trump has also, on several occasions, claimed that the US military has destroyed much of Iran’s military and arsenal, leaving them weak and defenceless. As per reports, the US is claimed to have been constantly “obliterating” Iran’s missiles, launchers, drones, arm factories and navy.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “Iran’s ability to build and stockpile ballistic missiles and long-range drones has also been set back by years compared to where it was six months ago before Operation Epic Fury.”
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also said that Tehran’s done and missile program was “functionally destroyed.”
However, these claims either have been disproven or remain unverified so far. The missile and drone stocks have reportedly been proven wrong, with leaked intelligence assessment beleiving that Iran still had about half of its pre-war arsenal.
Trump still seems to claim the opposite, saying that Iran has been defeated instead. According to reports, he said, “Iran has no chance. They never did. They know it. They express it to me when I talk to them. Then they get on television, and they say how well they are doing.
They have no Navy, totally wiped out. They have no Air Force, totally wiped out. They have no anti-aircraft capability… Their leaders are wiped out… I read the papers, and they say how well they are doing. They are not doing well….”
As per a TOI report, he further added, “We are truly making America great again. We are doing record business. We have a stock market that hit even with this military operation… We can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon… They have no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft equipment.
They have nothing. They have no leaders. The leaders happen to be gone, too. But can’t let them have a nuclear weapon…”
3. Regime Change: Mission Accomplished, Or Well, Not Exactly
The regime change that was being touted as a power move by Trump also didn’t really happen, or not the way the US government had wanted it to.
In a social media video, Trump, from his Mar-a-Lago estate, had incited the Iranian people to take over and overthrow the government and asked for the regime’s “unconditional surrender.”
In a televised address on February 28, Trump said, “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”
None of this happened, even though Israel killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures. The regime didn’t really change, with the successor that was appointed being the Ayatollah’s son, Mojtaba.
Daniel Benaim, a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Middle East Institute and former senior State Department official for the Gulf, speaking on this and regarding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said, “We’ve replaced a resolute, heavily ideological, and IRGC-dominated regime with another resolute, ideological and obdurate IRGC-dominated regime under a man 30 years younger.”
Read More: Explainer: What Does The US Naval Blockade Mean; Who Has The Upper Hand?
4. A Strait Of Hormuz, Brought To You by Iran, Now With Even More Control Than Before
Before February 28, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz was open. It was not controlled by any single state. Commercial vessels transited freely. The 20% of the world’s oil supply that passed through it did so without needing Iran’s permission, the US Navy’s escort, or the blessing of a ceasefire memorandum.
That is no longer the case, and the transformation is, at least in part, a direct result of the war that was supposed to guarantee the strait’s freedom.
Iran introduced a toll system for ships that wanted to pass through the chokepoint. As per Jackie Northam of NPR, “Iranian lawmaker suggested fees could be upwards of $2 million per vessel.”
Some “friendly” tankers to Iran were also allowed to move their ships through the strait, but the vast majority were refused permission. As of now, some 2,000 ships are waiting to transit through the strait, and yet the Trump administration has no answer on how that will happen.
Daniel Benaim, a former senior State Department official for the Gulf, said that this closing of the strait only seems to have “created a new deterrence and new economic weapon” for Iran.
Ian Ralby, the CEO of I.R. Consilium, a maritime law and security consultancy, also said, “For the Iranians to negotiate something new … that we’ve not seen before, where they’re actually able to charge legitimately for safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz — that is an incredible boon for them.”
When Trump briefly launched “Project Freedom”, a naval operation to escort commercial ships through the strait, it was abandoned within 48 hours, with the White House citing “progress” in diplomatic talks.
Iran called it Project Deadlock.
5. The Nuclear Deal That Had Already Been Agreed To?
The entire war had been started as an attempt to disrupt Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. While Iran has always stood firm that that is not something it planned to do, it is even unclear if the US actually set back Iran in terms of nuclear development at all.
Where Trump was boasting of having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites at Isfahan, Fordow and Natanz in June last year by bombing raids, however, the country reportedly still maintains its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium stock intact with no harm done to it.
Reports believe that this war might have just urged Iran to seek nuclear capability even more in order to protect itself from another US attack.
The timeline, though, had also been wonky, because according to reports, Trump, right at the beginning of the war, had claimed that Iran was just weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon.
This was refuted by nuclear experts who said Tehran still had a long way to go. Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies said, “There was no evidence that Iran was close to a nuclear weapon.”
The thing is, Iran had already signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, during the Obama-led term, which agreed to cap uranium enrichment at 3.67% purity, reduce its stockpile to 300 kilograms, and submit to an enhanced IAEA inspections regime in exchange for sanctions relief.
It was Trump that had withdrawn from the deal in 2018, describing it as the “worst deal ever negotiated.” Iran, deprived of sanctions relief and watching the US walk away, progressively rebuilt its nuclear programme over the following years.
By June 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran had more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity.
Now, the US and Iran are negotiating terms that Axios reports would allow Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67% after a moratorium of 12–15 years, with enhanced IAEA inspections including snap visits, and a commitment never to seek a nuclear weapon.
The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, noted the obvious: “We will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPOA was.”
6. Trust Among US Allies At An All-Time Low
Among the administration’s more durable achievements has been the thoroughness with which it has managed to alienate virtually every European ally. The US launched the war without consulting NATO members, without a UN resolution, and without asking Congress.
When it subsequently asked European nations for the use of military bases, the relocation of missile defence systems, and general political support, the response was an array of firm rejections, politely delivered, from countries that not long ago would have bent over backwards to accommodate American requests.
Italy, governed by a right-wing administration that has maintained relatively warm relations with Trump, denied a US request for aircraft to land at a military base in Sicily after RAI reported that “the plan had been communicated while the aircraft were already in flight.”
France’s Emmanuel Macron described Trump’s idea of forcibly reopening the Strait of Hormuz as “unrealistic” and added, with atypical sharpness: “When we want to be serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that “the momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost” and added that Spain “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”
Ivo Daalder, Former US Ambassador to NATO, was quoted by CNN in April, saying, “Military alliances are at their core, based on trust: the confidence that if I am attacked, you will come help defend. It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defence. Hope, perhaps. But they can’t count on it.
There was a way to bring our NATO allies into the discussion and have a discussion about how we can increase pressure on Iran. The president decided to do none of that. He decided to start a war without talking to Congress, without talking to the American people, without talking to our allies.”
As per an Associated Press report, the US also did not warn any of its Gulf allies, such as Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, that it was planning to attack Iran along with Israel.
This move proved fatal because it was these very countries that Iran chose to counter-attack, considering their proximity to the country, along with their relationship with the US and the military bases established in those regions.
Trump last month said that “They weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East… Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”
7. Angering The American Public
There is one front on which the administration has achieved genuinely historic results: it has managed to bring the American public to a more unified position on this war than almost any major military engagement in recent memory.
The position they have unified around is opposition.
A Pew Research Centre survey of 3,524 US adults, conducted March 16–22, 2026, found that 61% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while only 37% approved.
The Centre reported, “About 6 in 10 disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran conflict; as many say decision to use force was wrong.”
Nearly two-to-one, more Americans said the military action would make the United States less safe in the long run than said it would make the country safer.
Silver Bulletin, Nate Silver’s polling analysis platform, summarised the aggregate picture: net support for the Iran war stood at minus 15.2 as of May 1, 2026.
The platform’s analyst wrote, “The war has been unpopular since its outset, and with gas prices continuing to rise — the average price per gallon as I’m writing this update is $4.392 — it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.”
NBC News reported that Trump’s job approval rating had sunk to a new second-term low, driven by “growing concerns about rising costs and the war with Iran.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: BBC, The New York Times, CNN
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