President Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran without congressional signoff has splintered lawmakers, largely along party lines, and supercharged the debate over war powers authority.
While most Republicans largely rallied around Trump’s decision to carry out the massive joint attack with Israel, Democrats quickly denounced the attack as an illegal “war of choice” and demanded Congress come back to Washington to take a vote on whether to authorize another Middle East invasion.
Democratic leaders have vowed to forge ahead with their plans to force a vote on a war powers resolution next week in the House that would block Trump from carrying out additional strikes.
Trump has said that the goal of the sweeping military operation in Iran, which began around 9 a.m. local time is to “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry,” “annihilate their Navy,” and ensure that Tehran’s “terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region.”
Strikes carried out under Operation Epic Fury appeared to target Iran’s ballistic missile system and leadership. Trump told the Iranian public that “this will be, probably, your only chance for generations” to end the regime and warned that “we may have casualties.”
Perhaps the most vocal supporter of Operation Epic Furty was Sen. Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Trump ally.
“As I watch and monitor this historic operation, I’m in awe of President Trump’s determination to be a man of peace but at the end of the day, evil’s worst nightmare,” Graham cheered on X. “Well done, Mr. President.”
“This is a bold, decisive act of strength by President Trump,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) exulted on X. “The Ayatollah is responsible for killing hundreds of U.S. service members and slaughtering its own people. We pray that because of this leadership, the U.S. and the world will be a safer place.”
Even frequent GOP critics of Trump, retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) jumped to the president’s defense and credited him for greenlighting the consequential attack.
“I hate war, but Iran has been waging war against the U.S. since 1979,” Bacon wrote in a series of posts on X. “After the regime just murdered approximately 50,000 Iranians, it is time to help the Iranian people get rid of the Ayatollah once and for all.”
“President Trump has rightfully determined that this theocratic dictatorship cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons and continue to slaughter its own citizens who simply want freedom,” Tillis posted on X.
“We owe a profound debt of gratitude to the men and women of our Armed Forces and our coalition partners.”
One Democrat who wasted little time throwing his support behind Operation Epic Fury was Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). The Keystone State Democrat praised Trump for being “willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”
Predictably, the two outspoken, war-adverse Republican lawmakers from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul and Thomas Massie, railed against the joint operation. Paul invoked John Quincy Adams’ plea for the US not go “abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”
Meanwhile, Massie stood by the war powers resolution he co-authored with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to strip away Trump’s authority to attack Iran.
“The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war,” Massie posted on X.
House Democrats announced plans on Thursday to force a vote on the war powers resolution when the House gavels back into session next week. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) confirmed that Dems still plan to force that vote in the wake of Operation Epic Fury.
Trump had built up US naval assets in the region for weeks before greenlighting the strikes, including two aircraft carriers.
Top administration officials briefed the Gang of Eight, the group of lawmakers entitled to the highest level of classified briefings about the situation in Iran, on Tuesday. The Gang of Eight includes the top Republican in the House, Senate, and the intelligence committees.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had been briefed before the strikes began, The Post has learned.
“Today, Iran is facing the severe consequences of its evil actions,” Johnson posted on X. “For decades, Iran has defiantly maintained its nuclear program while arming and funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and other internationally recognized terrorist organizations.”
“For years, Iran’s relentless nuclear ambitions, its expanded ballistic missile inventory, and its unwavering support for terror groups in the region have posed a clear and unacceptable threat to U.S. servicemembers, citizens in the region, and many of our allies,” Thune declared.
“I commend President Trump for taking action to thwart these threats.”
Democrats, including on the Gang of Eight, largely condemned Operation Epic Fury, railing against Trump for not seeking congressional approval beforehand and fretting that the US is getting into another “forever war.”
“The American people have seen this playbook before – claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, lamented.
“By the president’s own words, ‘American heroes may be lost,’” he added. “That alone should have demanded the highest level of scrutiny, deliberation, and accountability, yet the president moved forward without seeking congressional authorization.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) the top Dem on the House Intelligence Committee chided that “everything I have heard from the Administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Trump’s war decision a “reckless abuse of the president’s power.”
He urged congressional leaders to reconvene the House and Senate to “immediately vote on authorization of Trump’s war of choice.
“Republicans and Democrats alike owe that to the American people. The president has launched an unauthorized war, and Congress must now decide whether to sanction it,” Meeks said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also urged the GOP-led Congress to intervene. “This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic,” she said.
Both Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated their support for a war powers resolution to stop Trump for carrying out further attacks on Iran.
“President Trump’s fitful cycles of lashing out and risking wider conflict are not a viable strategy,” Schumer chided.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who has authored multiple war powers resolutions, pondered why “President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East.”
“Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?” he added.
“I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) bemoaned on X. “Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people.
“We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die.”
