When US President Donald Trump ordered Operation Epic Fury at the end of February and American bombs fell on Iran, Washington seemed to be guided by a simple assumption: the war would be quick, clean and controlled.

But the reality looks different. Burning hotels in Dubai, mined shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, rocket fire on Israel and the Gulf states. And an administration in Washington that, by its own admission, had no plan for what came next. How could it come to this? The Trump administration made at least seven serious mistakes, research shows — from firing experienced Iran experts to withdrawing mine-sweeping ships to rejecting Ukrainian drone technology that could save lives today.

1. Trump administration has no fixed goals

One of the main problems with the US attack on Iran so far is that it is completely unclear what the actual goals of the war are. The statements of US President Donald Trump, his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other ministers constantly contradict each other. Initially it was said that they wanted to finally destroy Iran’s nuclear program. However, as Democratic Senator Chris Murphy reports from an administration briefing to members of Congress, this is apparently no longer the plan. According to Murphy, we know that nuclear capabilities “cannot be destroyed through air strikes.”

Regime change, i.e. the end of the dictatorship, is apparently no longer the goal of the war, as Murphy reports from the briefing. Initially, Trump emphasized in speeches that they wanted to help the Iranians get rid of the mullahs’ regime. Now it is said: Iranian ballistic missiles and the country’s navy should be destroyed. “But the question that stumped them: What happens if you stop the bombing and they start production again?” said Senator Murphy. The answer: “More bombings.”

2. US underestimated impact on global energy markets

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told US media on February 18 that he did not fear that a military strike against Iran would lead to disruptions in oil supplies or chaos in energy markets. Wright was referring to the US attacks on Iran last June, which had little impact on global energy prices. According to the US newspaper “New York Times“Other members of the Trump administration also did not assume that there would be major disruptions.

As US Senator Murphy further reported from the Trump administration’s briefing, they had “no plan” for a possible blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. “I can’t go into detail about how Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, but suffice it to say that at the moment they (the US government) don’t know how to reopen it safely.”

3. USA sent mine clearing boats from Strait of Hormuz for scrapping

In September 2025, the U.S. Navy withdrew its last Avenger-class deminers from Bahrain — ending more than three decades of dedicated demining operations in the Persian Gulf, according to “The War Zone” reported. Officially it was said that the outdated wooden-hulled ships from the Cold War would be replaced by more modern littoral combat ships with new mine-clearing systems. The decommissioned USS Devastator, Dextrous, Gladiator and Sentry were brought out of the Gulf by heavy-lift transport in January 2026 – less than two months before the USA attacked Iran. According to US intelligence agencies, Iran has now started laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz lay.

4. Trump’s people did not expect a harsh Iranian reaction

According to several military experts, the US did not expect such a harsh reaction from the Iranian regime. In the first days of the war, the mullahs fired hundreds of rockets and drones at US bases and also at civilian targets in the Gulf states. In addition to military targets, oil and gas facilities in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were also hit. Hotels burned in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

US Defense Secretary Hegseth even admitted to underestimating the mullahs’ regime’s reaction at a press conference on Tuesday. “I can’t say we necessarily expected this exact reaction, but we knew it was possible,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon. According to the minister, this is “evidence of the regime’s desperation.”

5. Trump administration fired many Iran experts

Shortly before Trump ordered Operation “Epic Fury” — a series of bombings on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and employees of the elite CI-12 unitwhich specialized in monitoring Iranian threats. The reason: Those fired had been involved in the investigation into Trump’s alleged handling of classified information at his Mar-a-Lago property.

That’s not all: On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the FBI’s “Foreign Influence Task Force” – the unit that had been set up specifically to combat secret influence operations by Iran, China and Russia. Things don’t look much better at the Ministry of Justice: the number of staff in the ministry’s national security department fell by up to two-thirds in some areas.

Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, puts it best: “It was always clear that the State Department’s short-sighted sell-out would come at a price — and now we see the consequences clearly before us.”

6. USA rejected drone aid from Ukraine

As members of the Ukrainian government told the US news portal “Axios” reported, the Trump administration rejected the purchase of Ukrainian drone technology in August 2025. According to “Axios”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had presented Trump in detail with the technology to bring Iranian Shahed drones out of the sky cheaply. “Someone decided not to buy it,” a government official told “Axios.”

The USA and its allies in the Gulf states are now having massive problems shooting down not only the ballistic missiles, but also the cheap drones, some of which are produced for around 20,000 to 50,000 euros. Many drones had to be intercepted with Patriot defense missiles costing up to four million euros.

Ukraine, however, is building interceptor drones that only cost between 5,000 and 20,000 euros to intercept the drones. Ukraine and Saudi Arabia already signed contracts this week to purchase Ukrainian interceptor drones. Ukraine has also sent drone experts to US bases in the Middle Eastto help the Americans defend against Iran drones.

7. USA did not take into account the further radicalization of the regime

Another problem facing the Trump administration is the radicalization of the mullahs’ regime, which is becoming increasingly likely due to the airstrikes. That’s how they were Air strike against Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ali Khameneiother government members from the second and third row were also killed. Donald Trump admitted in a speech that those who the US had in mind as more pragmatic leaders for a possible interim government had also been killed.

Khamenei’s successor was his son Modshtaba Khamenei appointed. He is said to have excellent connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Guards are the military backbone of the Islamic Republic. It is to be expected that will further radicalize the regimeexperts like emeritus political scientist Reinhard Schulze believe. “With the election of 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei as the new revolutionary leader, the Revolutionary Guards are demonstrating their totalitarian claim to power,” said Schulze in a post on the news platform X.