President Donald Trump’s declaration Wednesday that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was “over” thrusts him and his administration back into a familiar corner: mired in an unpopular war that Trump cannot seem to end, with midterm elections less than four months away.
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Republicans were cautiously optimistic after Trump and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding last month to end the war — the latest in a string of fragile and ultimately unsuccessful ceasefires since the war started in February. GOP leaders had warned the White House that rising gas prices exacerbated by the conflict could cost them in November’s midterms.
Now, with that deal in tatters, Republicans face those elections tied to a war most voters oppose, unable to end it but also, for the most part, unwilling to break with the president who started it.
Oil prices surged and financial markets fell Wednesday.
More war is a definite headache for Republicans on November’s ballot, said Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which supports GOP lawmakers in competitive congressional districts.
Republican voters were stomaching higher gas prices for a few months to support Trump, Chamberlain said, but now the summer driving season is here and there may not be any relief.
“It’s all about the cost of living for voters,” she said. “And if gas and grocery prices come back up, that’s going to be a problem.”
Chamberlain said Republicans should frame the resumption of fighting as something Trump had to do in response to tankers being damaged in recent days while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “He can’t just allow Iran to do this,” she said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The war and its effects continue to be unpopular and a particular drag on Trump: A majority of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the conflict with Iran, according to multiple national polls published recently.
In a mid-June Fox News poll, 58 percent of registered voters said the United States made the wrong decision in taking military action against Iran in February, and 41 percent said the country made the right decision. In the same poll, 87 percent of registered voters said it was important to avoid a prolonged military conflict with Iran, including 59 percent who called it “extremely important” to do so.
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Republican lawmakers have largely kept quiet so far about the aborted ceasefire. Since the war began in February, GOP lawmakers have struggled to balance support for Trump with disapproval of the war from their constituents. Few Republicans have defected to condemn the conflict outright. The most vocal among them, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), broke with the president on the war and other key issues in May, then lost his Republican primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
On Wednesday, Massie mocked both the war and recent assurances from Republican leaders that they had spoken with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) while he remained hospitalized. On social media, Massie joked that he too had talked to McConnell.
“He said we should end the war with Iran, quit giving aid to Israel, stop spying on Americans without a warrant, and he’s really sorry about how my primary turned out,” Massie said in a tongue-in-cheek post.
Democrats, meanwhile, seized on news of the aborted ceasefire to criticize Trump and tie the war to Americans’ struggles with affordability — their central platform leading into the midterms. For months, the Democratic Party has cast the president’s decision to take the country to war as reckless, repeatedly calling it a “war of choice” that has raised prices for everyday Americans.
“As costs for basic necessities like food, rent and health care continue to climb, Americans are now being forced to pay significantly higher prices for air travel as a direct result of Trump’s reckless war in Iran,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) wrote on X. “Promises made, promises broken: His policies have only exacerbated the affordability crisis he claimed he would fix.”
Democrats also used the news to renew calls for Congress to pass war powers resolutions directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 says the president shall remove forces engaged in hostilities abroad without congressional authorization if Congress directs him to do so, though presidents of both parties have disputed the constitutionality of that mechanism.
Trump, speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, after new U.S. strikes on Iran, said negotiations with Iran could continue, but he called Iranian leaders “scum” and “sick people,” and suggested further talks would be “a waste of time.” On Wednesday, he openly mused about destroying Iran’s infrastructure.
“In one day, we could knock down every single bridge in Iran. There’s not a thing they can do about it. … If we have to, we’ll take them out. They have desalinization plants. We’ll take them out if we have to. … Maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island,” Trump said.
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Scott Clement and Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
