Opinion

Trump’s Operation Epic Fury humiliated the experts and redrew the Middle East

From China's absence to stable energy prices, the dire warnings about Trump's Operation Epic Fury have largely failed to materialize

By Victoria Coates Fox News

Published April 22, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Iran ceasefire will be extended with a continued port blockade, President Trump says

President Donald Trump said that the decision to extend the ceasefire with Iran was reached based ‘on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured’ in a social media post. 

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When Operation Epic Fury began almost two months ago, Washington’s class of self-proclaimed foreign policy experts began warning that it would lead to several unintended and alarmingly negative secondary consequences.

The general consensus seemed to be that, from President Trump on down, the administration was not doing the long-term planning to prevent these bad outcomes, notably countries in the region shifting away from the U.S. to China, a broadening war led by Iran’s proxies, and devastating spikes in energy prices. Even more shockingly, according to these experts, the president had not consulted with NATO allies before the action, depriving America of their critical support.

While Epic Fury is certainly not over and outcomes remain uncertain, we now have enough perspective to determine whether these dire prognostications have come to pass. The experts’ scorecard to date is not good.

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