White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a sweeping and confident assessment of the United States military’s performance in its ongoing campaign against Iran on Monday, declaring that the Iranian regime is being systematically decimated and pointing to the scale of Operation Epic Fury as a vivid demonstration of what American military power looks like when deployed with full presidential commitment and strategic clarity.
Appearing live on Fox News from the White House, Leavitt provided some of the most detailed and striking metrics yet offered by the administration regarding the operation’s progress. She confirmed that American forces have struck more than 7,000 Iranian targets, sunk enemy submarines, and reduced the regime’s drone capabilities by a remarkable 90 percent — all within the first sixteen days of the campaign.
“This is Day 16 of Operation Epic Fury and the United States military continues to decimate the rogue Iranian terrorist regime,” Leavitt said, her tone leaving no ambiguity about the administration’s assessment of how the conflict is unfolding or where it believes the balance of power firmly rests.
The language Leavitt employed was deliberate and consistent throughout the interview. By repeatedly characterizing the Iranian government as a “rogue terrorist regime,” the Press Secretary underscored the administration’s framing of the conflict not as a conventional military engagement between nation-states but as a targeted campaign against what it regards as a fundamentally illegitimate and destabilizing force in the region.
Leavitt was also careful to situate the military campaign within a broader strategic and diplomatic context. She confirmed that President Trump has been directly engaged with allies in Europe and across the Gulf and Arab world, urging coalition partners to step up their contributions and pressing for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The closure of that critical waterway has already produced significant economic consequences, with oil prices climbing above $103 a barrel.
“Our NATO allies need to step up,” she said, noting that President Trump had previously secured a landmark commitment from NATO members to raise defense spending to five percent and was now calling on those allies to match American military engagement with proportional action.
Central to Leavitt’s briefing was her portrayal of President Trump as the singular driving force behind a campaign that she argued no previous American president had the resolve to undertake. “President Trump is the only president to have the courage to do what so many American presidents and leaders have longed for,” she stated, adding that generations of American leadership had wished to confront and neutralize the Iranian threat but ultimately stopped short of decisive action.
She further described the President as personally and continuously overseeing the operation from the White House, working around the clock to ensure its continued success. In Leavitt’s telling, the operation is not merely a military achievement but a statement of national will and presidential character — a demonstration, she suggested, of exactly what the United States is capable of when led by a Commander-in-Chief willing to act. Read_More…