"Maybe not a good thing to say WAR . . . I won’t use the word ‘war’ because they say if you use the word ‘war,’ that’s maybe not a good thing to do. They don’t like the word ‘war’ because you’re supposed to get approval. So, I’ll use the word ‘military operation,’ which is really what it is. It’s a military decimation.”
President Donald Trump, March 26, 2026 at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner.
On March 17, 2026, with little fanfare and scant press coverage, the Assistant Secretary of War for Homeland Defense and America’s Security Affairs, Joseph M. Humire, launched our new military offensive in Ecuador, Operation Total Extermination. Calling it a series of “bilateral kinetic actions against cartel targets along the Colombia-Ecuador border,” he indicated it was an effort by Ecuador against transnational criminal organizations with the support of the U.S.A.
Of course, the big concern with this announcement is the escalating violence across the globe and how President Trump is finding it easy to circumvent Congress in this escalation. But that’s not what this article is about. This article is about President Trump choosing increasingly bellicose and combative names to promote his ever-expanding war efforts.
Reminder - this is only the beginning of year two of his four year term.
Since elected for the second time, President Trump has been choosing increasingly aggressive names to accompany his expanded use of military force and extension of a “strike first” doctrine. Prior to his announcement of Operation Total Extermination (with a name like that - what could possibly go wrong?), he has called his military aggressions, Operation Epic Fury, Operation Midnight Hammer, Operation Southern Spear, Operation Rough Rider and Operation Hawkeye Strike.
And Trump is waging his jingoistic name war domestically, as well. In the naming of his vicious attacks on immigrants, President Trump is riffing off of the same formula - with a twist. Showing off his virulent racism and his penchant for sick humor, he has named his operations to round up immigrants with cruel, taunting, schoolyard bully names like Operation Dirtbag, Operation Catch of the Day and Operation Charlotte’s Web - combining a bit of what he might call ‘whimsy’ with some very, very dark messaging.
All of these names for operations both international and domestic contrast the names that past presidents have coined to define their wars and military aggressions. A non-comprehensive review of names of past military actions includes: Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and Operation Just Cause in Panama (George H.W. Bush), Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia (Clinton), Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (George W. Bush), and Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya (Obama). In naming the recent war in Iran and Lebanon, Operation Epic Fury President Trump borrowed terminology from former President Ronald Reagan and amped it up some. Former President Reagan called his war on Grenada Operation Urgent Fury.
Of course, there is an inherent problem in past U.S. Presidents glorifying (and at the same time downgrading) the horrors of war with such lofty names. For instance, former President Truman labeled the Korean War a “police action” in 1950. Even so, President Trump’s names are starting a new trend of announcing to the world the nation’s new emphasis on military thuggery.
It has always been problematic that Presidents have felt free to exercise their executive authority to deploy military force without a formal congressional declaration of war, but with Trump’s new military actions, we’ve entered a new age of very, very few checks and balances from our legislative branch of government. Based on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) covering the period from January 20, 2025, to early 2026, President Donald Trump's second term saw a rapid surge in military activity that surpassed the total number of airstrikes conducted during Joe Biden's entire four-year term from 2021-2025.
President Trump’s Second Term International Operations:
Operation Total Extermination (March 2026)
Operation Epic Fury (February 2026) airstrikes against Iran
Operation Hawkeye Strike (December 2025) large-scale strikes against ISIS targets in Syria
Operation Southern Spear (September 2025) anti-narcotic/maritime campaign in the Caribbean
Operation Midnight Hammer (June 2025) B-2 stealth bombers and missile strikes targeting Iranian nuclear infrastructure
Operation Rough Rider (March 2025) air and naval campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen, which included U.S.-led coalition
President Trump’s Second Term Domestic Operations Against Immigrants:
Operation Catch of the Day (January 2026) Operations conducted in Maine
Operation Salvo (January 2026) An ICE raid in New York City targeting gang members.
Operation Catahoula Crunch (Swamp Sweep) (December 2025) Enforcement operations in Louisiana
Operation Metro Surge (December 2025) Immigration enforcement in the Minneapolis region
Operation Charlotte's Web (November 2025) a Department of Homeland Security action against undocumented immigrants in North Carolina
Operation Dirtbag (November 2025) Enforcement operations in Florida
Operation Midway Blitz (January 2025) An operation in the Chicago metropolitan area where approximately 3,000 detained individuals reportedly disappeared from ICE records
In President Trump’s first presidency, his former Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor, Steve Bannon, in a 2019 PBS Frontline interview, outlined the strategy to overwhelm the media and opposition. by "flooding the zone" with rapid-fire initiatives, a concept he termed "muzzle velocity.” It’s a strategy President Trump has continued into his second term and it appears to be working.
Pamela Nagler Pamela Nagler is finishing her book, Unceded Land, Indigenous California and the Foreign Invasions: Spanish, Mexican, Russian, US.
