“We brought peace to the Middle East. The October ceasefire ended the war.”

Multiple speeches between the October 2025 Hamas-Israel ceasefire and the February 2026 Iran war start

Less than five months after declaring peace, the United States itself launched a new Middle East war. On February 28, 2026, U.S. and Israeli forces began Operation Epic Fury against Iran, triggering Iranian missile and drone retaliation against Israel and six Gulf states, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the world's biggest oil supply disruption since the 1970s.

The Gaza ceasefire was real, signed October 9, 2025, with Trump telling the Knesset on October 13 that "the war is over." But region-wide peace never materialized: the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated into the 2026 Lebanon war, which killed more than 2,000 civilians and militants, and Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon in March 2026. The costs disprove the "peace" framing on their own: by March 19, 2026, the Iran war had cost the U.S. military an estimated $18 billion, the Pentagon requested $200 billion more, and damage to Arab countries was estimated at over $120 billion by March 31. A region where the U.S. is at war and global oil markets are in crisis is not a region at peace.