Once the self-proclaimed champion of “no more wars,” President Donald Trump has ordered airstrikes on Yemen, bypassing Congress in a move as unconstitutional as it is depressingly routine.
The target? A country most Americans would struggle to find on a map. The reason? Officially, the White House insists this is a necessary strike against Houthi “terrorism” and a defense of global shipping.
Order of Fire and Fury
The Trump administration wasted no time framing the airstrikes as a decisive act of leadership. The White House, in its official statement issued on Saturday, cast the operation as both defensive and necessary:
Our economic and national security have been under attack by the Houthis for too long. Today, President Trump’s action and leadership are moving to end this.
The message was clear — American warships and commercial vessels were victims of unprovoked aggression. The administration pointed to a grim statistic:
The Houthis [the Iran-backed Shiite Muslim force] have attacked U.S. warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023.
No mention, of course, of why American military vessels were there in the first place, thousands of miles from U.S. shores. But that’s a question for another time. The immediate takeaway from the White House was simple: The Houthis had made their choice, and now they would face the consequences.
Trump himself took to Truth Social to reinforce this message with characteristic flair:
Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.
Not just any response, but a “decisive and powerful” one — a phrase that suggests the Houthis, an insurgent group that has survived years of a U.S.-backed Saudi bombing campaign, will now somehow crumble under this latest show of force.
Trump’s Threats
Trump’s statement made it clear: This was not a one-off strike but the beginning of something far greater:
The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.
An “overwhelming” response was necessary, Trump argued, because the Houthis had “choked off” global commerce:
The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt.
Never mind that most of this commerce is between Europe and Asia, as pointed out on X by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). The route’s “economic value to the United States is primarily in importing oil from the Middle East, but we can drill our own oil,” added the congressman.
In addition to that, countries and companies have already adjusted their routes — shipping firms are rerouting around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, and the UAE-Israel land corridor now largely bypasses the Red Sea altogether.
Despite this, America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, brimming with the kind of magnanimity only a superpower can afford, assured the world that the U.S. was “doing [it] a favor” by dropping bombs on Yemen.
Yet, Trump’s rhetoric escalated toward the apocalyptic:
To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!
This kind of language has a history — and that history is littered with drawn-out wars, spiraling costs, and unintended consequences.
And then, there is Iran. Trump, in his closing remarks, issued a direct warning:
Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!
Following the retaliatory strikes launched by the Houthis, Trump took his threats further. On Monday, he declared all attacks launched by the group will be pinned on Iran:
Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!
The war drums are beating once again.
Why the Houthis Attacked
Per the White House’s own statement, the first reported Houthi attack on U.S. warships occurred on October 19, 2023 — coinciding almost exactly with the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
That assault, following Hamas’ October 7 attack, received full support from the Biden administration. Yet, while vowing to wipe out Hamas terrorists, Israeli forces targeted civilian infrastructure, hospitals, refugee camps, and aid convoys. In the first month alone, over 11,000 civilians were killed. The justification? The Israeli government, with Western approval, declared that Hamas fighters were hiding among civilians, using them as “human shields” — a rationale that somehow justified indiscriminate bombing. That is a war crime by any legal standard.
Watching the events unfold, in mid-November 2023, the Houthis declared that no Israeli vessel would pass through the Red Sea unchallenged until the attacks on Gaza stopped. They saw the blockade as leverage — a means of putting pressure on what they, and much of the world, saw as genocide.
Their targets were not random. The Houthis specifically attacked Israeli-owned or operated ships. Then, as the U.S. and U.K. bombed Yemen in retaliation, they expanded their blockade to include American and British vessels — a direct response to Western military involvement.
Broken Ceasefire
By January 2025, a ceasefire in Gaza — ironically credited to Trump — had led to a pause in Houthi attacks. That fragile peace, however, did not last.
In early March, Israel cut off all aid shipments into Gaza, weaponizing starvation against a civilian population already on the brink. The blockade, framed as pressure on Hamas, deepened Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
Compounding the crisis, Israeli military operations continued despite the ceasefire. Since the truce took effect, Israel has killed 150 Palestinians, according to the Middle East Monitor. That includes 40 in the past two weeks alone. An Israeli airstrike on March 15 killed nine people, including three journalists.
In response, the Houthis reinstated their blockade on Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea. The message was clear: If Israel strangles Gaza, the Red Sea will be risky to sail.
“Peace” Delivered by Missiles
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth endorsed the airstrikes as a return of “peace through strength.”
National Security Advisor Michael Waltz stated on Sunday that the airstrikes successfully eliminated “multiple” Houthi leaders.
While the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes were “precise,” Yemeni authorities report they killed at least 53 people. That includes women and five children, with 98 others wounded.
Media reports indicate a total of 40 U.S. airstrikes pounding Yemen, concentrating on the northern Saada governorate. Strikes also hit the capital, Sanaa, as well as Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar, Al Bayda, Marib, and Hajjah. Targets included power stations, residential areas, homes, and Houthi military sites.
The bombing campaign marked the first time the Trump administration has struck Yemen — but likely not the last.
A War That Never Ends?
Hours after the bombing, the Houthis retaliated, launching missiles and drones at the USS Harry Truman. The U.S. military claimed to have intercepted most of them, but the damage — political and otherwise — was already done.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned that the group will be targeting both U.S. military and commercial vessels in response to the aggression.
Trump insists the strikes will end conflict, yet history suggests otherwise. This isn’t resolution — it’s escalation, mirroring the War on Terror’s endless drain on American resources and the ever-expanding domestic surveillance state in the name of “safety.”
If anything, Trump’s fixation on the Middle East and escalating threats to Iran reek of neoconservatism — the same ideology that sold Iraq and Afghanistan as winnable ventures and burned through trillions without delivering victory or peace. Trump, once a critic of such interventions, now follows that well-worn path.
