Donald Trump’s Republican allies in the United States have lined up to praise the attacks on Iran, as responses to the president’s war have largely divided along partisan lines.
Despite the emergence of a non-interventionist wing within Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, Republican opposition to the war against Iran remains weak, underscoring the persistent power of foreign policy hawks within the party.
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“Today, Iran faces serious consequences for its evil actions,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement endorsing the war.
“President Trump and the Administration have made every effort to seek peaceful and diplomatic solutions in response to the Iranian regime’s sustained nuclear ambitions and development, terrorism, and the murder of Americans, and even its own people,” Johnson said.
The claim that Trump first tried diplomacy before bombing Iran and emphasizing Tehran’s alleged threats to the United States was a recurring theme in Republican statements welcoming the attacks.
In fact, Trump on Saturday ordered the bombing of Iran in a joint operation with Israel, while American and Iranian negotiators were still locked in talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who had mediated the indirect talks, believed that an agreement to ensure peace was closer than ever.
“President Trump gave IRAN MANY NEGOTIABLE OPPORTUNITIES,” Senator Chuck Grassley wrote in X.
Congressman Randy Fine, a Trump ally with a history of anti-Muslim statements, also expressed support for the attacks.
“We are with you, Mr. President,” Fine wrote in X.
“We will cut off the head of the snake of Muslim terror, bring lasting peace to the Middle East and save the Iranian people. Bombing.”
Minimal dissent
Many Republican members of Congress were also quick to welcome the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“President Trump just changed ‘Death to America’ to ‘Death for America,'” Senator Bernie Moreno wrote on X.
Lindsey Graham, a hardline senator and strong advocate of changing governments in Iran, said that “unleashing” Washington’s military powers against Iran sent a message to Russia and China.
“All I can say about President Trump is that I’ve never met a man like him. I’ve never met anyone so determined to be a peacemaker, but you don’t want to lose face with him,” Graham told Fox News.
Even conservative commentators who had warned against the war, such as podcaster Tucker Carlson, remained silent Saturday.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who fell out with the US president and resigned from Congress earlier this year, shared several posts arguing that war with Iran does not advance US interests.
Greene noted that Trump had presented himself as a pro-peace candidate when he ran for president.
“Does the war with Iran help the mental health crisis in America or help the drug addiction pandemic in America? No. Does the war with Iran do anything to help American families stay together and survive? No, not at all,” he wrote.
“But within hours of the war with Iran, it was reported that approximately 40 innocent schoolgirls in Iran were killed by Israeli bombs. And they don’t care; they killed thousands of innocent children in Gaza, and apparently our Pro-Peace administration doesn’t care either,” Greene added.
Congressman Tom Massie, whom Trump is trying to unseat by backing a primary challenge against him, declared himself a rare Republican critic of the war.
“I oppose this war,” he wrote on X. “This is not ‘America First.'”
Massie vowed to move forward with a bill to limit Trump’s power to attack Iran when Congress reconvenes in the coming days.
The Democrats’ response
Many Democrats focused on the legal aspect of the attacks on Iran, arguing that Trump should have sought congressional approval. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the authority to declare war.
Still, many applauded Khamenei’s death and criticized Trump’s strategy.
“I’m not going to shed any tears regarding his death. He has brutalized his own people and built an Iran that is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told National Public Radio.
“But what comes next is unclear because the Trump administration has failed to articulate a plan to ensure that U.S. forces are not entangled in a forever war in the Middle East, which we know would be a disaster,” Jeffries said.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine cast doubt on claims that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, which will likely be cited as Trump’s legal argument for the attack.
“I’m on two committees that give me access to a lot of classified information; there was no imminent threat from Iran to the United States that would justify sending our sons and daughters to another war in the Middle East,” Kaine told CNN.
“I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.”
But some pro-Israel Democrats broke ranks with their party and praised the war unreservedly.
“President Trump has been willing to do what is right and necessary to bring about real peace in the region,” Senator John Fetterman wrote in X.
“God bless America, our great military and Israel,” he wrote.
