Operation Epic Fury by the United States against Iran is more than a militaristic escalation. The book shows that Trump is reviving old myths about the American Frontier, the Cowboy, Regenerative Violence, and Providence, while stripping away their civic aspect and turning them to narratives of dominance.
This is the main difference between him and earlier presidents. He does not use these myths as a way to praise collective efforts or democratic purposes, but rather to show domination, purity, and his personal omnipotence.
Myths fuel a conflict
Trump’s tone has changed since the beginning of the Iran war. He now sounds more like a commander than a president. He demands Tehran’s “unconditional
Surrender” promises “bombs dropping everywhere” and invokes “great leaders, acceptable to all,” for the period of postwar.
The language used here is not just a language of necessity for the military: It’s a reactivation of an ancient grammar of American power, but in incredibly hardened form.
You can also find out more about the following: Republics of Myth Hussein Banai and John Tirman argue in 2022 that the conflict with Iran stems not just from strategic concerns but also two contradictory national narratives.
Each of these turns each new crisis into a confirmation of old humiliations, fears and myths.
This narrative is deeply embedded in the American mind. It’s shaped by the idea of the frontier, a place to conquer, a group to subdue and a task to complete. This framework, when applied to the Middle East casts Iran in a negative light. This narrative was not invented by Trump. It was radicalized by Trump.
The Frontier: From expansion to predatory behavior
Trump referred to the frontier in his 2025 inaugural speech as one of America’s founding myths. In his inaugural address on January 20, 2025, Trump presented the frontier as one of the nation’s central founding myths.
Once again it becomes a language for power and appropriation.
This rhetoric was not abstract. Trump said repeatedly in the early weeks of his second tenure that Canada would become the 51st State and Greenland should be declared:
I think that we will get there one way or another.
The Puritan imagination of “New Jerusalem” and the conquest by violence of an area populated with “barbaric barbarians” is the basis of this narrative. Republics of Myth This video shows the projection of this grammar from Latin America into the Middle East.
Trump does not merely recycle an old American stereotype; he brings it back to life in its most expansive form. This same system is also in place at home. Trump uses the words “invasion”, “migrant occupation” as well as “savages” at the border.
He also applies this logic abroad, where he describes Iran in apocalyptic language as “evil forces” which must be destroyed and an existential threat. The point in both instances is not to defend a border but to reconquer through moral narratives of good against evil.
The Cowboy is a Cult Leader
Heather Cox Richardson, a historian, explains the second myth: that of individualistic Cowboys, who act alone and expect nothing of others. Government protects its own and enforces their will through dominance of others.
Richardson shows how this myth has been reworked and mainstreamed over the years by Ronald Reagan. It is being taken to extremes under Trump.
The logic is captured in one sentence that Trump used when he first announced his decision to launch strikes on Iran.
No president has ever been willing to go to the extent that I will tonight.
Cowboys are no longer seen as symbols of autonomy. He is now the man who takes risks alone and goes against the grain of institutional caution.
Trump assimilates the myth in his person. He even frames Ayatollah Khamenei’s death as a “O.K.” in light of the supposed Iranian plot against him during his 2024 presidential campaign. Corral-style duel:
I got him first before he did.
Whereas earlier presidents used frontier imagery as a way to describe a collective effort, Trump uses the cowboy image for a charismatic and transgressive leader. The collective order is no longer represented by the hero.
The hero externalises conflicts, divides the world in good and bad, and only justifies his existence by winning. It is a pattern that has been used before. The pattern is not new. Trump undermines his own binary: even after branding a rival as evil, Trump may change course the following day to embrace the idea that a deal can be made with an enemy. It is not just harsher, but also less stable, transactional and theatrical.
Violence and regeneration
Richard Slotkin, a historian who has been studying the subject for many years, identified a third myth: that of regenerative violent. Slotkin has demonstrated that the myth of regenerative violence, which asserts that violence is able to purge disorder or restore lost order in modern American politics, runs throughout American political mythology.
The violence of the frontier is not accidental; it’s its symbolism.
It removes obstacles, heals humiliations, such as the one caused by the hostage crisis of 1979, a humiliation that Trump invoked during his address on February 28, 2026, purifies the space and regenerates the locality.
Trump invoked the “American Carnage” in his inaugural speech as early as 2017. The narrative was based on the Jeremiad rhetoric. It painted a picture of a country in ruins that needed to be rebuilt through rupture.
This logic will extend to foreign policy in 2025-2026.
Trump told graduates at West Point that he wants to focus the US military’s efforts on “crushing America’s adversaries and killing America’s enemies” and the capability to “dominate and destroy any threat.”
This myth was dramatized even more clearly since the beginning of President Obama’s second term through a fusion of entertainment with reality. For example, a White House Video that combined images from the Iran strikes and scenes from Hollywood movies and video games, under the slogan of “American Justice.”
Trump links the destruction of his opponents to an alleged political liberation.
The violence is not a mere means. Violence becomes a condition for renewal. Here is where Trump’s use of presidential power differs the most from conventional practices.
Trump’s radical beliefs are in stark contrast to those of his predecessors, who equated violence with a project for political change – such as democratisation or state building. He believes that power is a virtue and the crushing of an enemy its greatest proof. The violence no longer creates new orders. This becomes a goal in and of itself as if the mere demonstration of force could bring about a solution.
Trump has stripped the mythology of American violence of all its universalist trappings. The only thing left is the destruction of property as a sign of power.
Providence, the Leader’s Mission
The fourth myth has to do with religion.
The American frontier has always been associated with providentialist thinking: the idea of a wilderness mission, an elect people and a Protestant God. Trump adopts this tradition but he does it on his own. He said in his inaugural speech of 2025 that God had “saved his life for a purpose” and that God “saved him to make America Great Again.” He declares again at the National Prayer Breakfast that God has a “special plan and glorious mission” for America.
The original myth has also been distorted.
Providence no longer serves to remind the collective mission of a nation. The president is sanctified in an almost messianic role. Trump supporters are advancing this trend: evangelical Trumpism uses language like anointing or prophecy to describe Trump. Here, religion does not replace the strategy; rather it is used to sanctify force.
Pete Hegseth, the US Defense Secretary is an example of this dynamic. He is a modern crusader who combines nationalist Christianity with martial virility and sacred legitimisation.
His vision of violence, which has little restraint, is a vision that is largely unrestrained. Invoking divine purpose in front of troops, he justifies war.
The real story behind the war against Iran
All of these issues are brought into stark relief by the war on Iran.
The war against Iran shows that old American myths have not only been reused but also hardened and distorted. It shows how the frontier is transformed into a place of predation. The cowboy becomes a leader cult. Violence translates to redemptive crushing. Religion equates to the sanctification of the leaders.
Trump doesn’t simply carry on the US Presidential tradition.
Trump radicalises the darkest aspects of this tradition, stripping it of its civic, moral or universalist elements and reducing them to their core brutality: force, conquest, divine rights, and annihilation. This is part of the reason why they appeal to so many Republican sympathisers.
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