The United States has destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and largely obliterated Iran's naval headquarters, President Trump announced Sunday on Truth Social, as Operation Epic Fury's second day brought both significant military gains and the first American casualties of the campaign.
The New York Post reported that three American service members have been killed and five seriously injured during the operation, US Central Command revealed Sunday. Details about their deaths remain unclear.
Trump did not mince words about what comes next for what remains of Iran's fleet.
"We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!"
He added, with characteristic bluntness: "Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!"
The US began Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, around 9 am local time in Iran, as part of a joint effort with Israel to hit a series of targets aimed at debilitating the theocratic regime and degrading its missile capacity.
The campaign has moved fast. According to Trump, at least 48 top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been killed off since the strikes began.
Trump described some of the destroyed vessels as "relatively large and important," and said the naval headquarters was hit in a separate attack. The pace of the operation appears to be exceeding internal expectations. Speaking to CNBC's Joe Kernen about the status of the campaign, Trump was direct.
"We're doing our job not just for us but for the world. And everything is ahead of schedule."
He called Iran "a very violent regime, one of the most violent regimes in history."
Iran's response so far has been more theatrical than tactical. Over the past day, Tehran's vessels blasted messages telling commercial ships that the Strait of Hormuz was closed. Traffic through the strait, which carries an estimated fifth of the world's seaborne oil on an annual basis, has plummeted sharply since the strikes began.
Trump downplayed concerns about the strait, and the administration's posture suggests confidence that Iran's ability to enforce any kind of blockade is deteriorating by the hour.
When your navy is sitting on the ocean floor, closing a shipping lane becomes an aspiration rather than a capability.
Key Republican senators moved quickly to define the operation's objectives for a domestic audience already bracing for the inevitable "quagmire" narrative from the left. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally and staunch proponent of military action in Iran, told NBC's "Meet the Press" something worth listening to carefully.
"The goal of this operation is to change the threat, not the regime."
That is a meaningful distinction. It preempts the comparison to Iraq that every cable news panel will reach for by the end of the week. This is not about nation-building. It is about eliminating a military threat.
Sen. Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, reinforced the point, stating that "the president has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force inside of Iran." Degrade the regime's capacity to project violence. Do not occupy its territory. The framework is clear.
In a detail that may surprise critics who have already settled on their talking points, Trump told The Atlantic that he "agreed to talk" with Iran's new leadership. But he was not interested in pretending the diplomatic failure belonged to Washington.
"They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long."
This is the model that drives the foreign policy establishment up the wall: act decisively, establish dominance, then extend the option to negotiate from a position where the other side has no leverage left. It is the opposite of the Obama-era approach, which handed Iran pallets of cash and hoped for good behavior.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has spent years claiming credit for attacks on commercial tankers and vessels in the region, is now on the receiving end of the kind of force projection it never believed would actually come.
Trump's warning on Truth Social left no ambiguity for whatever remains of Iran's military leadership.
"WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE."
Three American families received the worst news any military family can get this weekend. That cost is real, it is permanent, and no strategic gain erases it. Every serious person who supports this operation should hold that weight honestly.
But the calculus that led to Epic Fury did not emerge from a vacuum. Iran's regime, the longest-serving dictatorship of its kind, spent decades sponsoring terrorism, seizing hostages, threatening allies, and building the missile capacity that this operation now aims to destroy. Every previous administration chose restraint. Every previous administration watched the threat grow.
Things are evolving, as the president said, "in a very positive way right now." The ships are sinking. The headquarters is rubble. The leadership is thinning. And for the first time in decades, Tehran is the one being told what comes next.
