Republican lawmakers appear uncertain over what steps to take regarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran amid confusing signals from the White House about its strategy and priorities, a continued lack of specifics from the Defense Department about funding needs, and the conflict’s rising unpopularity with American voters ahead of the fall midterm elections.
After a two-week spring recess, senators this week returned to Capitol Hill, where Republican members were pushed to answer questions on whether they had concerns with Trump’s recent threat to destroy Iranian civilization, how long they would continue to support an unauthorized war, and how they planned to address the administration’s request for hundreds of billions of dollars in increased military spending in a narrowly divided Congress—and against a backdrop of Democrats criticizing them for ignoring voters’ desire to focus on bringing down the cost of living.
Republican lawmakers appear uncertain over what steps to take regarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran amid confusing signals from the White House about its strategy and priorities, a continued lack of specifics from the Defense Department about funding needs, and the conflict’s rising unpopularity with American voters ahead of the fall midterm elections.
After a two-week spring recess, senators this week returned to Capitol Hill, where Republican members were pushed to answer questions on whether they had concerns with Trump’s recent threat to destroy Iranian civilization, how long they would continue to support an unauthorized war, and how they planned to address the administration’s request for hundreds of billions of dollars in increased military spending in a narrowly divided Congress—and against a backdrop of Democrats criticizing them for ignoring voters’ desire to focus on bringing down the cost of living.
By and large, Republicans did not have answers to these questions from reporters and sought either to change the subject when asked about Trump’s public threats to carry out war crimes against the Iranian people or to praise his latest tactic to counter Tehran’s shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz by imposing a U.S. blockade of tankers going into and out of Iran.
When asked if he had any concerns about Trump’s threat last week to end Iranian civilization, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Tuesday he was more focused on what the president was doing. “He’s trying to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which we are all supportive, and the efforts that are being made there to further isolate the Iranian regime and their economy … hopefully will have the desired effect, and we’ll get the strait open again.”
Not counting the shaky cease-fire that began on April 8, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has been going on for more than 45 days. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, U.S. military hostilities initiated without permission by Congress, such as the Iran war, are supposed to automatically end after 60 days if lawmakers haven’t acted in that time frame to authorize them. However, the law does allow the president an additional 30 days to extend the military campaign if he certifies to Congress it’s in U.S. national security interests to do so.
Thune was cagey on whether he would vote to authorize the war if it goes beyond 90 days.
“Most of us, I believe, feel pretty good about what the military … has achieved there in terms of its objectives,” Thune said, calling it a “hypothetical” that Trump might seek to prolong the Middle East conflict. “I think the administration has a clear objective, a clear plan, and if they can execute on it, hopefully, that question won’t be necessary.”
Trump’s stated objectives in the Iran war have frequently changed, so it’s unclear what goals Thune was referring to that he had confidence would be achieved.
Many regional experts have concluded that even though the United States has clear conventional military superiority over Iran, Tehran’s continued ability to wage asymmetrical warfare, such as closing the Strait of Hormuz to most tanker traffic or carrying out strikes on the energy infrastructure of neighboring Gulf countries, gives it an advantage in outlasting Trump, who has to pay attention to domestic political constraints such as rising consumer prices and voters’ displeasure that Iran’s dictatorial regime can more easily ignore.
Democratic lawmakers have been keen to amplify such concerns.
“There are more and more Americans who are unable to make their lives work because we have seen a 30 percent increase in gas prices since this war began,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said in a Wednesday floor speech that criticized Republicans for not working with Democrats to end the war. “Farmers have seen a 35 percent increase in fertilizer, a 50 percent increase in diesel costs. That increase in agricultural costs is going to almost immediately spill over into big increases at the grocery store.”
Even amid reports of some Republican lawmakers privately venting to each other about how much the war is jeopardizing their reelection chances, the party that Trump spent nearly a decade refashioning to be loyal to him above all else is still providing the president with the critical votes he needs to beat back regular Democratic attempts to force an end to the war on Iran.
The Senate on Wednesday rejected, 47-52, a bid to take up a war powers resolution from Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth. That vote fell along similar lines to previous votes on the matter. A Thursday war powers vote forced by Democrats in the House was also unsuccessful but even more narrowly so, 213-214.
Democrats are also hammering Republicans for not doing more to insist that top administration officials come to Capitol Hill for public hearings about the costs, strategy, and impact of the war.
“I saw the absolute insane [post] that President Trump put out about destroying a civilization. I came straight back to the Capitol to try to demand what the American people have been asking for, because they are livid right now about this war that’s being fought in their name, at their expense, but without their say,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said to reporters on Tuesday. “I went to the Pentagon, I asked for a briefing about this war, and the answer I got was ‘no.’ They’re not just saying no to me, they’re saying no to the American people, they’re saying you don’t deserve to know what is happening with this war. And we are just so sick of this.”
Top Defense Department officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are slated to testify at the end of the month on the administration’s annual spending request and will likely face questions about the Iran war, roughly two months after it was started.
Other top Trump officials were pressed on Thursday about the administration’s yearly spending proposal, which seeks an eye-catching $450 billion increase in military funding compared to current levels, to be partially offset by deep cuts to a range of domestic social safety net programs.
In a hearing with Russ Vought, the White House’s top budget official, Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, noted that lawmakers are still waiting to find out how much the Pentagon wants in a separate request to cover the costs of the Iran war—even as officials are still refusing to tell lawmakers what the war has already cost.
“I just want to confirm this: You have no idea, none, [how] much has been spent on the war so far?” Murray asked Vought.
Vought responded that he didn’t want to provide even an estimate in case it was inaccurate.
“We don’t have that figure right now, I think in part, because it’s fluctuating on a day-in, day-out basis,” he said.
House and Senate Republicans are divided on a strategy for approving Trump’s massive $1.5 trillion defense spending request, as they almost certainly lack the necessary Democratic votes to pass it in the Senate via the normal appropriations process. There are options for approving the hundreds of billions of dollars in extra military funding that Trump is seeking via another partisan reconciliation process. But that path carries its own pitfalls, as just a few Republican lawmakers could withhold their votes and sink the whole process—a prospect that becomes more likely the more unpopular the war becomes with the American public.
