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Despite there still being quite a bit of dust left to settle, it appears Operation Epic Fury is fully living up to its name.

The joint military effort between the U.S. and Israel successfully neutralized the now-deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the weekend — and that earth-shattering salvo appears to be just the tip of the spear.

According to Fox News, President Donald Trump spoke on the aftermath and fallout of Operation Epic Fury, and it appears there’s still a lot of work to do.

FOX NEWS REPORT: President Trump says Operation Epic Fury is progressing faster than expected as more than 1,200 Iranian targets have been struck, including the country’s entire naval fleet of 11 ships. Iran has responded with strikes on at least nine countries across the region,… pic.twitter.com/NGnuB6QbHW

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 2, 2026

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the Trump administration believed that Israel was imminently planning to strike Iran before the US authorized Operation Epic Fury. “Was there an imminent threat? Did you tell lawmakers there was an imminent threat?” A reporter asked.

“There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio said. “And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded, because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first, after they were attacked by someone else, [if] Israel attacked them, they hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths,” Rubio said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte voiced unequivocal support Monday for President Donald Trump’s military strikes on Iran, declaring that America’s allies stand united as Tehran escalates missile retaliation across the region.

“There is no sliver of light between us,” Rutte said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“The Europeans, Canada, Mark Carney, the United States, the American president… All for one, one for all, because everybody supports, here in Europe, the fact that [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is gone, that the nuclear capability is gone, that the ballistic missile program has been now degraded,” he said.

As the joint US-Israeli Operation Epic Fury continues to defang the Islamic Republic of Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday evening and said it had to be done now — before it was simply too late.

REUTERS—The United States will take action to mitigate rising energy prices due to a spike in the price of oil caused by the Iran conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Rubio said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would announce the plans on Tuesday.

“Starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to try to mitigate against that … We anticipated this could be an issue,” Rubio said.

Two more U.S. service members have been killed during Iran’s retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli strikes over the weekend.

U.S. Central Command said that the bodies of two previously unaccounted for soldiers were retrieved from a facility struck by Iran.

Read CENTCOM’s full update here:

CENTCOM Update

TAMPA, Fla. – As of 4 pm ET, March 2, six U.S. service members have been killed in action. U.S. forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region.…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 2, 2026

CENTCOM Update

TAMPA, Fla. – As of 4 pm ET, March 2, six U.S. service members have been killed in action. U.S. forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region.

Major combat operations continue. The identities of the fallen are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification.

Two Iranian drones attacked the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on Monday night.

Since the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes wreaked havoc on Iran, killing many Islamic Republic military leaders including the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran has hit back with a series of counterattacks on U.S. personnel and allies in the region.

Little information on the attack is available as of yet, though CNN’s Nic Robertson was live reporting on the incident Monday night from Riyadh.

BREAKING: The US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has just been hit by multiple Iranian drones.

Good Tuesday morning.

Here is what’s on President Trump’s agenda today:

8:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time

11:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Greeting with the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of German

11:15 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Bilateral Meeting

Tehran is demanding unity and projecting strength after the confirmed killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Iran’s women’s national soccer team just chose silence during the anthem of the Islamic Republic.

President Trump and Israel have decapitated Iran—literally. Its ballistic missile capabilities have been severely degraded. Its political leadership was annihilated, and its military command structure was eliminated. It’s a rogue state for all intents and purposes. The world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism is no more, its nuclear weapons ambitions buried under the rubble of its dead leaders, and only the Democrats are complaining.

Even if these talks happen, it is virtually certain that the president will not lose sight of the ultimate goal, which remains to topple the Islamic regime in Iran once and for all. If the regime survives in any form, it will gather its strength and once again menace the U.S. and Israel as quickly as it possibly can. The only way to ensure peace in the region is to end this evil regime.

“‘I Have Agreed’: Trump Says Iran’s New Leaders ‘Want To Talk,’” by Mark Tanos, Daily Caller, March 1, 2026:

President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s newly installed leadership wants to resume negotiations, one day after a massive U.S.-Israeli military operation killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” Trump told The Atlantic in a phone call from Mar-a-Lago. “They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”

Trump faulted Tehran for stalling weeks of diplomatic efforts and acknowledged that several Iranian officials who participated in those discussions died in the strikes. “Most of those people are gone,” he told the magazine. “They played too cute.” He declined to specify when negotiations would begin.

President Donald Trump stated Monday that the “big wave” of U.S. military strikes against Iran is yet to come, indicating that the most intense phase of Operation Epic Fury is imminent.

The joint U.S.-Israel military operation was launched on Saturday, targeting Iran’s military and leadership infrastructure. Under the direction of President Trump, the operation began with coordinated strikes on key Iranian sites using precision munitions from air, sea, and land platforms, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and low-cost LUCAS drones.

Key objectives of Operation Epic Fury include dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, destroying its ballistic missile capabilities, eliminating regime leadership, and achieving regime change.

President Donald Trump declared Monday that the joint U.S.–Israeli military campaign against Iran represents “our last, best chance to strike” and eliminate what he called the “intolerable threats” posed by the regime in Tehran.

The operation, launched Saturday under the name Operation Epic Fury, has already reshaped the strategic landscape.

Major Iranian leaders were killed in the opening phase, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump vowed the United States will continue the campaign with “ferocious, unyielding resolve.”

For a third day, U.S. and Israeli forces are pounding Iran, striking more than a thousand targets across the country, including key government and military buildings in the capital. For now, the Iranian regime’s military is fighting back hard, firing missiles and launching drones in at least 11 countries, including Israel and Kuwait. Tony Dokoupil and Matt Gutman have the latest.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine confirmed that the U.S. will redirect more military forces to the Middle East as the operation against Iran continues.

“This deployment included thousands of service members from all branches, hundreds of advanced fourth and fifth-generation fighters, dozens of refueling tankers, the Lincoln and Ford carrier strike group and their embarked air wings, sustained flow of munitions, fuel supplies, all supported with command and control intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance network,” explained Caine.

When the Iranian people are finally free from the barbaric butchers who stole their country, Iran and Israel will do wondrous things together. That day, however, has not yet come. The Iranian Islamic regime is still in power, albeit drastically weakened. There is a great deal more that must be done. The celebration in London is a hint of how much could be accomplished by a partnership between Israel and a free Iran.

Iranian exiles in London are singing the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah.

They’re thanking Israel for killing the dictator who has stopped them coming home. pic.twitter.com/0spwlvKZun

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) March 1, 2026

The people of Iran chanting support for Bibi Netanyahuhttps://t.co/a7BpphraST pic.twitter.com/rYUQIA3sdU

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) March 1, 2026