Trump’s private confidence in “Operation Epic Fury” collides with a world suddenly unsure of where America is headed. Thirteen thousand combat flights, thousands of targets destroyed, dozens of Iranian leaders reportedly killed—officials now boast that every objective on the four-point checklist has been met. Iran’s industrial base is shattered, its navy crippled, its missile program gutted. Yet victory feels strangely fragile.

While Iranian leaders insist they were never the threat Washington claimed, the real rupture is unfolding in Western capitals. European governments bristle at reports Trump threatened to cut off weapons to Ukraine to force them into his Iran coalition. NATO’s foundations shake as he openly toys with withdrawal, dismissing alliances as irrelevant in the age of Epic Fury. The war against Iran may soon wind down, but the war over America’s role in the world is only beginning.