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Yet the US president, who covets the Nobel Peace Prize, has used the US military to strike at targets in seven foreign nations and in international waters.
Trump presidential victory speech and defense agenda campaign was “I’m going to stop wars.”
The US has launched 9 military operations in 14 months
Countries where the second Trump administration has carried out strikes, as of March 2026
As the world now watches another war spread across the Middle East, here’s a look at the nine US military operations since Mr Trump took office for the second time less than 14 months ago in January 2025.
Venezuela
Reports of a military operation to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro started circulating on January 3.
The US launched air strikes in northern Venezuela, captured Mr Maduro and his wife, and removed from them from country to face charges in the US.
This kind of targeted removal of a national leader by the US military is not unprecedented. As a legal justification, the US may point to one of these precedents: the 1989 capture of Manuel Noriega — the de facto leader of Panama — under George HW Bush.
In its case against Noriega the US relied, among other things, on the fact he was not officially the head of state. The US stopped recognising Mr Maduro as Venezuela’s head of state in January 2019 after elections widely agreed to be fraudulent.
Stopping short of explicitly supporting or criticising the US, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told a press conference: “We are supporters of international law, and it’s for the Americans to make clear the legal basis of the steps taken.”
This now appears to be the approved line when government figures are asked for comment on controversial use of military force by the US.
Australia’s response to Maduro’s capture was in contrast to reactions from some of its regional neighbours with Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia all expressing concerns using quite strong language.
Syria
The US has ongoing military operations in Syria targeting Islamic State (IS, otherwise known as ISIS).
In December 2025, US forces in coordination with the Jordanian military struck more than 70 targets across central Syria.
These specific attacks — dubbed Operation Hawkeye Strike — were in direct retaliation for an attack that killed two US soldiers and one US civilian interpreter in the city of Palmyra.
Although Mr Trump blamed IS for the attack, Syrian authorities said it was carried out by a disgruntled member of the Syrian security forces.
Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in as Secretary of Defense but is now known as Secretary of War, specifically called the strikes a “declaration of vengeance” — rhetoric which has been reprised by Mr Trump after the first US casualties of the war on Iran this week.
The US military operations against IS in Syria have been conducted with the cooperation of the current Syrian regime.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has also expressed strong support for the operations.
“Australia supports the latest strikes by the US and partners against ISIS in Syria,” she said.
“ISIS is a radical, extremist organisation responsible for appalling violence, including in Australia. We must all keep working together to defeat ISIS and reject its dangerous, hateful ideology.”
Nigeria
In coordination with the Nigerian government the US conducted several bombings targeting IS in the north of the country on Christmas Day in 2025. Mr Trump said the strikes were in response to targeted killings of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government disputes.
Terrorist violence has been a long-term problem in Nigeria and religion certainly plays a part in that, however experts say there is a lot of nuance around the issue, saying Muslims suffer just as much as Christians.
Nigerian officials have argued that terrorist groups have a history of indiscriminate killings. Mr Trump leaned heavily on religion in his justifications for the strikes, declaring on Truth Social: “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
The Australian government has expressed its support for the operations, with Senator Wong saying: “The Australian government supports US-Nigerian cooperation on ISIS, including today’s strikes. ISIS terrorises people around the world. Its extremist, violent ideology must be stopped.”
Nigeria and the US have both left the door open for future cooperation on military action against terrorist groups in the country.
Pacific and Caribbean boat strikes
Since September 2025, US armed forces have been attacking what the White House alleges are drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. As of February 23, 2026, the New York Times has documented 44 strikes that have killed 150 people.
Interceptions of drug-smuggling vessels, sometimes including the use of force, are not new, however they have typically been treated as law enforcement rather than military operations.
The Trump administration has claimed authority to conduct the strikes based on assertions that the boats are operated by terrorist organisations and pose an imminent threat to American lives due to drug overdoses.
Experts have questioned the legality of the strikes under both US and international law. Civil rights lawyers have suggested the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings — a claim that family members of victims are testing in US courts.
One operation in particular has drawn additional criticism after a second strike on the same vessel killed two survivors of the initial strike who were in the water.
When asked about this strike in Senate estimates, Senator Wong declined to specifically support or criticise the US actions, saying “it is for the United States to articulate the legal basis of its actions”.
The campaign targeting drug-smuggling boats has included a strike on a port facility in Venezuela that Mr Trump has claimed “knocked out” a “big facility”.
Iran 2025
In June 2025, Mr Trump ordered his first major military operation against Iran with the bombing of several targets, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, related to Iran’s nuclear weapons programs.
Mr Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have both claimed this operation “obliterated” their targets and put Iran’s nuclear program back by years.
Yet preventing Iran getting access to nuclear weapons was part of the rationale Mr Trump put forward for subsequent attacks in 2026.
The June 2025 attack involved submarine-launched cruise missiles and some of the largest non-nuclear bombs ever dropped. Scholars have said the strikes were a violation of the UN Charter.
But Senator Wong has expressed clear support.
“The world has agreed Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, so yes, we support action to prevent that, and that is what this is,” she told the ABC’s AM program.
Somalia
The US has had ongoing operations targeting militants in Somalia — largely the groups al-Shabaab and IS-Somalia — since George W Bush started the “war on terror” after the September 11 attacks in 2001. However, the Trump administration has dramatically increased the scale of these operations.
In 2025 alone there were more operations than during the 20 years of the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations combined, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
New America, a Washington-based think tank that tracks counter-terrorism operations undertaken by the US, has counted 36 strikes in Somalia already in 2026.
Iraq
With the cooperation of Iraqi forces the US conducted a precision air strike targeting and killing the second-in-command of IS in March 2025.
Despite claims from the Iraqi government that IS had been defeated in the country, the terrorist group has remained active there and authorities have expressed growing concern that IS forces may regain strength in Iraq following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
Yemen
A campaign of air strikes led by the US and the UK, and supported by international partners including Australia, against Houthis in Yemen began under Joe Biden’s presidency in response to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks were an attempt to put pressure on Israel and the broader international community around the Israeli war in Gaza.
Under Mr Trump the effort was escalated significantly through Operation Rough Rider, with air and naval strikes targeting Houthi in Yemen. Until the latest attacks on Iran it had been the largest US
Despite Mr Trump’s willingness to claim that US military superiority led to Houthi “capitulation”, the success of the campaign is widely questioned with analysts suggesting the campaign largely failed to inflict significant damage while costing the US billions of dollars.
The operation also resulted in some embarrassing failures including the accidental loss of military aircraft and the Signalgate episode where a journalist was added to a group chat in which US national security leaders were discussing planned operations against the Houthis.
The Australian government has been supportive of campaigns against the Houthi in Yemen, providing operational assistance for specific attacks as well as taking strategic and planning responsibilities.
The ongoing conflict between the US and Houthis in Yemen has been a key element of the build-up to conflict with Iran because the Houthis are seen as Iran’s proxies. Mr Trump has gone as far as to say:
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran,”
he said.
The Israeli military has also launched multiple strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Iran 2026
Finally we come to last week’s attack by the US and Israel on Iran. It is by far the largest foreign military operation Mr Trump has initiated, transforming a collection of smaller but connected conflicts into what is quickly turning into a war engulfing the entire region.
While the Albanese government was quick to express support for the actions taken by the US and Israel, it has also been avoiding the question of its legality.
Tamer Morris, a senior lecturer in international law at University of Sydney, says international law experts are “generally in consensus that this is an illegal act of aggression by the US and Israel”.
Trump administration officials are hoping for a “decisive” and quick win with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth hitting back at claims that the US had started another “pointless endless war”.
“This is not Iraq,” he said.
But many experts and politicians, including some of Mr Trump’s own allies, are not so sure that is possible.
One of Mr Trump’s stated goals for the attacks is regime change in Iran, urging the Iranian population to rise up and take power following the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
However, experts and analysts see regime change as one of the less likely outcomes, warning that the regime is likely resilient enough to survive the death of its leader and that other options might even be more dangerous.
Matt Gaetz, a staunch ally of Mr Trump, said last year “every regime change war has been extremely popular at the start” then added the warning: “But the historical trajectory isn’t good.”
Production and editing: Georgina Piper, Margaret Burin and Matt Liddy
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