Donald Trump and Iran: The War Damage Revealed
Will Donald Trump ever play the transparency card? Since the start of the war in Iran on February 28, 2026, during the direct and coordinated attack with Tel Aviv on Tehran, which resulted in the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, he has been claiming that the United States has the upper hand. That Iran is in trouble. What he didn’t say, however, is the extent of the damage suffered by US bases since the beginning of the conflict.
The Washington Post analyzed satellite images of the Middle East over the past two months. Journalists counted 228 American targets hit by Iran on military bases in the region. This includes hangars, barracks, fuel depots, radars, and communication and air defense equipment. In total, 15 American bases were targeted, with 217 structures and 11 equipment hit within them.
Image Satellite Censorship Remains an Obstacle to Truth
To carry out this crucial account, as neither the White House nor the Pentagon has communicated about the damages suffered by the United States in this war, Washington Post journalists had to rely on Iranian satellite images. This hundred images were of course verified, in particular with lower-resolution images provided by European satellites, to ensure they were not altered or manufactured by the Iranian regime for propaganda purposes.
If journalists could not use images from American satellites, it is because the companies that broadcast them across the Atlantic have been ordered not to make them available—at least not in real-time—views from the Middle East. This censorship was decided in March 2026, about ten days after the start of the conflicts, making journalistic work and academic analysis by researchers very difficult.
The United States Underestimated Iranian Strength
The Washington Post also had the Iranian images analyzed by experts. According to them, the significant damages visible on the satellite reports indicate that the United States vastly underestimated Iranian capabilities to strike military bases, especially thanks to their drone arsenal. Specialists believe that Washington should have been better prepared, particularly by analyzing the war’s evolution and the use of drones made in Ukraine. The Iranian strikes visible on satellite images are surgical, possibly indicating Russian intelligence assistance.
Other American media outlets have tried to tally the damages caused by Iran to American bases in the Middle East but did not reach the same conclusion. However, American authorities remain silent in the face of journalists and elected officials demanding accountability. “No one knows anything, and it’s not for lack of asking,” a member of Congress recently denounced on NBC. These damages, and the United States’ inability to prevent them, will eventually cost them millions of dollars.
And if it turns out that the White House did not take the necessary measures to protect its men—including the six soldiers killed on a base in Kuwait in early March—and the territory of its allies in the region, the political consequences would be even greater.
