President Donald Trump has called himself the “peace president,” but throughout his second term in office he has demonstrated an ongoing willingness to use the military in overseas operations. Ecuador and Iran represent the latest conflicts the United States has engaged in, but they are just two of several countries to become entangled with the U.S. military once Trump reentered the White House
Ecuador
In March 2026, the Trump administration launched a military operation in another country, though not against its government: The White House “announced it is collaborating with Ecuador to combat ‘terrorists’ in the South American country,” said Al Jazeera. Joint military efforts have already started in Ecuador, with operations launched against “designated terrorist organizations.”
Several questions remain, as “both Ecuador and the United States haven’t specified who they’re targeting, locations of operations or the scope of military actions,” said USA Today. But Trump’s decision to send in the military marks an “embrace of past American strategies fighting drug traffickers in Latin America.”
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Iran
Trump has been jawing at Iran since retaking office over the country’s alleged attempts to develop a nuclear weapon. Following a bombing campaign in June 2025 that destroyed several of Iran’s nuclear facilities, in February 2026 the U.S. “joined Israel and attacked more than 1,000 targets in Iran,” said Reuters. This full-scale assault killed several of Iran’s top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
While Republican officials and members of the Trump cabinet have variously called the Iran conflict a “mission” or “defense operation,” Trump himself has repeatedly used the term “war.” Trump’s calculation “has been that he can launch military operations with the loss of few American lives and minimal disruption to the economy,” said The New York Times, but the “opening days of the war in Iran are challenging that assumption.” No American ground troops “have yet been sent to Iranian soil,” but “the administration has not ruled out deploying soldiers.”
Venezeula
As with Iran, Trump also pushed to remove the leader of Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro, alleging that he was a national security threat. Trump accomplished this goal in January 2026 when the U.S. “launched an incursion” into Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, that captured Maduro and left the “country in a state of uncertainty over its political and economic future,” said Time.
Maduro was brought to the United States to face charges of narco-terrorism, but Trump “has never formally declared war on Venezuela, despite overseeing an aggressive military campaign on the South American country,” said Time. The White House has “justified its attacks using the president’s Article II constitutional powers, which give the president the authority to defend the country against threats.” Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has since taken over Venezuela. Meanwhile, Trump “has offered conflicting statements on the future of U.S. involvement in the country,” said the Council on Foreign Relations.
Syria
In response to an attack by the Islamic State militant group, Trump in January 2026 “carried out large-scale strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria,” said BBC News. These strikes were “conducted in an effort to combat terrorism and protect U.S. and partner forces in the region.” The initial strike involved more than 90 munitions fired at more than 35 Syrian targets, according to BBC News.
It later came out that the Islamic State’s assault was performed by a “member of Syria’s security forces slated for dismissal over his extremist views,” said the Times, though the Islamic State itself “has not claimed responsibility for the attack.” While White House officials have continued to say they will seek vengeance, the “Syrian leadership has pledged continued cooperation with the United States and its allies to combat ISIS in the country,” said the Council on Foreign Relations.
Caribbean territories
While not an attack against one specific country, more than 40 U.S. strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats “have been carried out in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September 2025,” said NBC News. Democrats in Congress have criticized the strikes, which have reportedly left over 130 people dead, though Trump “has repeatedly argued that the strikes are preventing illicit drugs from entering the U.S.”
Though most Caribbean nations have criticized the use of U.S. military force, at least one has sung a different tune: Trinidad and Tobago “came out strongly on Washington’s side” with a “full-throated endorsement of President Donald Trump’s belligerent drug policy in the region,” said Bloomberg. This makes the nation one of the only Caribbean locales to take Trump’s side.
Yemen
From March to May 2025, the United States “launched naval and airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in what was code-named Operation Rough Rider,” said Time. This was, up to that point, Trump’s largest military operation of his second term. The strikes were aimed at a variety of Houthi targets in the country, including “radar systems, air defenses, and missile and drone launch sites” in response to the Houthi’s attack on international ships in the Red Sea.
At least one of these attacks by the U.S. “caused dozens of civilian casualties and significant damage to port infrastructure,” said Human Rights Watch, and the event should be “investigated as a war crime.” This assault, in the town of Hodeidah, targeted the port through which 80% of Yemen’s humanitarian assistance arrives, Human Rights Watch reported. U.S. officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Iraq
A more minor military incursion took place in March 2025, when the military “conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq,” that killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, according to the U.S. Central Command. Al-Rifai was “one of the most important ISIS members in the entire global ISIS organization. We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations,” Gen. Michael Kurilla of the U.S. Central Command said.
After the Iran conflict broke out in February 2026, Trump administration officials also had discussions “with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq and northwestern Iran about potentially arming groups opposed to the Iranian regime,” said NBC News. This would be the latest in a decades-long saga of military action between the U.S. and Iraq.
Somalia
Since February 2025, just weeks after taking office, Trump “has been conducting strikes in Somalia to target ISIS and al-Shabaab,” said NewsNation. There have been “more than 100 strikes launched, mostly using drones.” As with Ecuador, Somali officials seem receptive to the military usage.
The operation “reinforces the strong security partnership between Somalia and the United States in combating extremist threats,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a post on X. Somalia “remains resolute in working with its allies to eliminate international terrorism and ensure regional stability.” An “initial assessment by the Pentagon indicated that ‘multiple’ operatives were killed in the operation,” said Deutsche Welle. It also stated that “no civilians were harmed in the strikes.”
