The Pentagon chief’s comment during a Pentagon news conference came hours after Trump announced a two-week cease-fire.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday morning declared the United States won a “decisive military victory” over Iran, coming hours after President Donald Trump announced a two-week cease-fire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth’s comment during a Pentagon news conference came after more than a month of U.S.–Israeli strikes on targets inside Iran, and as Tehran responded by firing rockets and drones at nearby countries. Iran also had been attacking civilian ships in the strait, a strategic waterway that usually carries around a fifth of the world’s oil, prompting a surge in energy prices.
“To the precision campaign that obliterated Iran’s nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer to the decisive military victory we just achieved in Operation Epic Fury—no other president has shown the courage and resolve of this commander in chief,” Hegseth said.
Operation Midnight Hammer was the summer 2025 conflict with Iran, while Operation Epic Fury is the current military operation.
Prior to the cease-fire agreement, Trump warned that the United States would start to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants by Tuesday evening if Tehran did not agree to the U.S. terms. Several top Iranian officials and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had made public statements that their country wasn’t accepting a deal.
Speaking alongside Hegseth, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 13,000 targets have been struck in operations against Iran, destroying 80 percent of Iran’s air defense systems and attacking 90 percent of its weapons factories.
Caine told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that more than 90 percent of Iran’s regular naval fleet has been sunk, “including all major surface combatants” with 150 ships now “at the bottom of the ocean.”
He further said that the operation included the consumption of “more than 6 million meals, and by my estimate, more than 950,000 gallons of coffee, 2 million energy drinks, and a lot of nicotine.”
As for Iran, Hegseth said, the country has no capacity to defend its power plants or bridges, while it would have “taken them decades” to rebuild that infrastructure if it were struck.
