As U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 14 for his first state visit to China since 2017, much of the mainstream media framed the moment as Xi Jinping holding the stronger hand. That framing is contrary to the facts.
The U.S. carried out573 air strikesin Trump’s first year alone, more than Biden’s entire four-year total of 494, according to ACLED. When coalition strikes are included, the2025 totalrises to 658, approaching Biden’s four-year coalition figure of 694. The operations spanned eleven distinct theaters in seventeen months. In Somalia, the administration conductedmore operationsin 2025 alone than the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations combined, beginning February 1 withISIS strikesin the Golis Mountains coordinated with the Somali government.
In Iraq, a March 2025al-Anbar strikekilled Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, the ISIS second-in-command, coordinated with Iraqi intelligence. In Yemen,Operation Rough Riderlaunched in mid-March 2025 against Houthi command-and-control hubs using JASSM cruise missiles, JSOWs, and Tomahawks, surpassing $1 billion in costs within its first month, before concluding with anOman-mediated ceasefireon May 6, 2025.
In Iran,Operation Midnight Hammerdeployed seven B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base to drop 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Fordow, Natanz, andIsfahan, as part of the 12-day war that ended in a ceasefire.
In Syria,Operation Hawkeye Strikefollowed the deaths of two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter in an ISIS ambush, killing more than 50 ISIS operatives by mid-February 2026, with35 ISIS targetsstruck on January 10 alone. In Nigeria,Christmas Day strikesagainst ISIS in Sokoto State used more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles from a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea, with100 U.S. troopsdeployed to train Nigerian forces.
Against drug networks, asustained maritime campaignin the Caribbean and eastern Pacific produced at least44 aerial strikesand 150 deaths by early 2026, while aU.S. intelligence task forceplayed a role in the Mexican raid that killed cartel boss El Mencho, the largest cartel takedown in at least a decade. In Ecuador,joint U.S.-Ecuadorian forceslaunched operations in March 2026 against designated terrorist organizations.
In Venezuela, aCIA drone strikemarked the first known U.S. attack inside the country. That was followed byOperation Absolute Resolveon January 3, 2026. During the operation, U.S. special forces breached Maduro’s compound in Caracas. Approximately 75 Cuban andVenezuelan guardswere killed, and Maduro and his wife were transported to New York on narcoterrorism charges.
On February 28, 2026, the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, naval capacity, nuclear program, andproxy network. The operation involved twoaircraft carriers, 200 fighter jets and bombers, and more than 50,000 U.S. troops. Close to 2,000 targets were struck during the campaign.
The result, documented byanalysts at Time, is that world leaders are now treating the management of Trump’s emotions as a strategic priority.ACLED describedthe approach as “strike first, ask questions later,” the most extreme tool at a president’s disposal, used not as a last resort but as a first move. That behavioral shift is visible in government decisions across every region.
Bilateral Trade Agreementnegotiations between the U.S. and India were launched by Trump and Modi on February 13, 2025, withModi positioning himselfas one of the first global leaders to meet Trump after his inauguration. TheTrump administrationlifted 25 percent tariffs on India over its Russian oil imports in February 2026, underscoring Washington’s willingness to use coercive economic leverage even against close partners.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
