Trump’s 'Epic Fury' becoming an 'epic disaster': conservative

U.S. President Donald Trump, with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, aboard Air Force One, U.S., March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

U.S. President Donald Trump is describing his military strikes against Iran as Operation Epic Fury, but in an article published by The Bulwark on March 12, Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol warns that Trump's war is becoming an "epic disaster."

Kristol brutally mocks the name Operation Epic Fury in his article, arguing that it underscores how silly and performative Trump can be.

"It's a ridiculous and embarrassing name," Kristol writes. "After all, this is a war that Trump has characterized as merely a 'little excursion.' So by Trump's own telling, it's not very 'epic.' And 'fury?' That's not perhaps the term to choose if you want to reassure the American people and the world that this war you've started is based on sound strategic judgment, and that this military operation is well-considered. But if you revel in tough-guy triumphalism and world-historical vanity, then I suppose 'Epic Fury' hits the spot."

Kristol notes that Trump, during an interview with Axios reporter Barak Ravid, claimed that "the war is going great" — an indication that Trump may be "protesting just a bit too much."

"Surely he knows that so farm, he's failed to remove the reprehensible Iranian regime," Kristol argues. "He knows the Iranians still have plenty of short-range missiles, drones, and naval mines because they're continuing to use them, some to damaging effect. He knows that he's been unable to prevent the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, the disruption of the global economy, and a dramatic rise of oil prices up to the neighborhood of $100 a barrel. He knows that seven American soldiers have been killed and many more seriously injured. He knows that the cost of all this is running at some $2 billion a day. And even he must know that U.S. forces were responsible for the killing of scores of school children in an accidental bombing — a tragedy that, as the New York Times put it, 'is sure to be recorded as one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades.'"

Kristol continues, "You might think that Trump would therefore know — though he'd never admit it — that all is not going swimmingly well…. I suspect that Trump may realize deep down that his exercise in epic fury is nuts. Presumably, that's why he's assuring us that 'any time I want it to end, it will end.' I expect him to declare victory and end it soon. But it won't be remembered as an epic victory for the United States. All we can hope is that Epic Fury doesn't turn out to have been an epic disaster.

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