ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
U.S. launched more foreign strikes in Trump’s first year than during Biden presidency: Survey
United States was involved in 1,008 foreign military events across at least nine countries over the past 12 months.
-
IANS - Wed, 14, Jan 2026
- 03:02 EST
- 9
President Donald Trump / Xinhua
The United States carried out more air and drone strikes abroad in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term than during former President Joe Biden’s entire four-year presidency, according to a newly published survey.
From Jan. 20, 2025, to Jan. 5, 2026, the United States conducted 573 air and drone strikes, rising to 658 when operations with coalition partners are included, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). By comparison, there were 494 U.S. strikes and 694 coalition operations during Biden’s full four-year term.
The nonprofit conflict watchdog said the United States was involved in 1,008 foreign military events across at least nine countries over the past 12 months, resulting in an estimated 1,093 fatalities. During Biden’s presidency, ACLED recorded 1,648 such events and approximately 1,518 deaths.
Fatalities during Trump’s first year included at least 110 alleged drug traffickers killed by U.S. military operations in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a Newsweek report. The number of deaths resulting from U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June remains unknown.
ALSO READ: ‘I’ve saved tens of millions of lives,’ Trump
More than 80 percent of the strikes were directed at Yemen’s Houthi rebels between January and December, accounting for more than 530 deaths, ACLED said.
“Trump’s first year of foreign strikes shows a ‘strike first, ask questions later’ strategy,” the watchdog said in its analysis. “The numbers show that the Trump administration has leaned hard on rapid, high-impact military action as a first response, moving quickly and with fewer constraints than in previous years.”
“What we are seeing in U.S. foreign activity right now is striking not just for its speed, but for how openly it is challenging the idea that power should be constrained by shared rules,” said Clionadh Raleigh, CEO of ACLED, according to Xinhua.
Raleigh said recent U.S. operations in countries such as Venezuela and Nigeria demonstrate how quickly this approach can translate into the use of force. She warned that attention could next turn to places such as Greenland, Colombia, and Cuba, which she said should be treated as independent states with their own political agency rather than as targets for control.
Raleigh accused the second Trump administration of framing such regions “as problems to be managed, and as places that also hold assets the U.S. would benefit from controlling, whether that’s oil, territory, or strategic position.”
Related
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
E Paper
Video
Comments
Start the conversation
Become a member of New India Abroad to start commenting.
Sign Up Now
Already have an account? Login