(Paris) A self-proclaimed “president of peace” who has a taste for force: since Donald Trump’s return to power a year ago, the American army has already carried out almost as many airstrikes as during the entire presidency of Joe Biden, according to a count by the NGO Acled.
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The strikes by American planes on Venezuelan air defenses during the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 brought the Republican president’s total to 672 air or drone strikes since his inauguration on January 20, 2025, compared to 694 for Joe Biden over his full presidency (2021-2025).
Donald Trump already far exceeds his Democratic predecessor on unilateral strikes: 587 outside the coalition, compared to 494 for Biden in four years.
Acled counts strikes and victims by compiling data from different selected sources that it considers reliable (media, institutions, local partners).
More than seven out of ten strikes over the past year have targeted Yemen, the majority in actions targeting the Houthi rebels. Nearly two out of ten strikes targeted Islamist movements in Somalia.
PHOTO OSAMAH ABDULRAHMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Yemeni soldiers inspect the damage caused by a US strike, April 27, 2025.
The United States has also launched air strikes in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and since September has been carrying out a campaign of strikes against boats presented as belonging to drug traffickers in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
These actions overall caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people, including civilians, according to Acled’s count.
For Clionadh Raleigh, general director of Acled, the multiplication of strikes “openly calls into question the idea that the power (of a country, Editor’s note) should be limited by shared rules” of international law.
“When the president (Trump) says that only his “personal morality” limits what he can do, this indicates a distance from law, institutions and alliances,” she stressed in a press release.
