Trump’s Epic Fury is grandiose, like he wanted. But it’s more of an epic fail

The latest round of global chaos unleashed by President Donald Trump began with the name of his war in the Middle East. Instead of going with the obvious choice: The Donald J Trump War for Reasons Too Numerous to Mention but that Definitely Make Sense and are Legal if I Say So, Trump personally selected Operation Epic Fury from a list of options and by doing so made his first mistake.

Epic, by definition, requires grandiose scale. Operation Epic Fury, which began as an Israel-US attack on Iran, is living up to its name, exploding out to encompass Lebanon and the majority of the Middle East, and pushing up global fuel, fertiliser and food prices. Epic Fury’s tidal wave of consequences now includes not just the dead, injured and displaced in the sites of military action but Thai fishermen and Kenyan agricultural exporters, whose livelihoods are threatened without stable fuel supplies.

Public schools in Pakistan have closed in an effort to combat fuel shortages and fuel rationing might be coming to Australia. Millions of Filipino, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Ugandan and Nigerian families now face financial ruin, as they are dependent on remittances sent home by family members working in the Gulf states. It’s looking like the only geographical location that won’t be negatively affected by Epic Fury, is Epstein Island.

These global consequences signal that Operation Epic Fury has given way to its sequel: Operation Epic Fallout. In true sequel fashion, the stakes keep getting higher. Now NATO is in the firing line, after Trump’s request for international military assistance to secure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz was roundly rejected.

The social media president was deeply hurt to have countries ganging up on him that he thought were his followers, if not his friends. On Wednesday he posted: “We no longer ‘need’, or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance – WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

Leaving aside for one moment that this post is a cry for professional therapy, it prompts the question: If you never needed anyone’s help, then why did you ask literally the entire world for help only a few days ago? The answer to this paradox of course, is that despite MAGA’s love of America First and the isolationist inclinations of a certain wing of the MAGA movement, having launched once again into foreign adventurism, the US knows that it cannot rely on Israel and Team America alone to close the Pandora’s box that they ill-advisedly opened.

With its missile stocks depleted, the Trump administration only has a short timeframe to notch a comprehensive victory before facing voters in November, who are already angry about skyrocketing petrol prices and the multibillion-dollar price tag of the Iran war. Unfortunately for the White House’s plans to retain control of Congress, the unplanned-for consequences of Operation Epic Fallout just keep coming.

Last Saturday, North Korea launched 10 ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, an incident that coincided with news that the US had moved some anti-missile defence systems from South Korea to the Middle East. In yet another Epic Fallout subplot, after the Pentagon copped significant criticism for what appeared to be disastrously inadequate preparation for the totally foreseeable closure of the Strait of Hormuz, they sought to calm energy markets by lifting oil sanctions on Russia. This will provide Putin with an economic windfall that will directly affect his capacity to continue to wage war on Ukraine. Given that Trump seems genuinely outraged by Europe’s refusal to fall into line with Epic Fury, perhaps his next cognitive test could include a “join the dots” activity, which would test his ability to draw a straight line from the US directly supporting Europe’s nuclear-armed adversarial neighbour to the EU’s refusal to support his military action against Iran.

Trump has always assumed he can bend reality to his will, that his saying something will make it so, however outrageous the lie or the bluster. Through military force he assumed he could swiftly re-make the world to his liking. He forgot that the leaders of other countries also have agency and competing national interests and will pounce upon opportunities created by instability and chaos.

As the geopolitical dominoes continue to fall, it feels inevitable that, in the same way Operation Epic Fury has transitioned into Operation Epic Fallout, Operation Epic Insert-Your-Own-F-word-of-Choice can’t be too far away. Because that’s the other problem with sequels: they never seem to end.

Melanie La’Brooy is a novelist who writes on politics and social justice issues.

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