House Republicans are showing little problem with President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran. But they’re also welcoming the ceasefire deal and sounding relieved that there aren’t more strikes coming at the moment.
It could be just the latest sign of Trump loyalty from a Trump-loving Republican conference. But it also could be a signal of some quiet uneasiness for a war with Iran.
On Monday, as the ceasefire was announced, House Republicans told NOTUS they hoped this was the end of U.S. military involvement in Iran.
“Bottom line is we just showed the entire planet that we can reach out and touch you. And you need to understand that,” Rep. Morgan Luttrell told NOTUS. “After fighting in two wars, if we don’t ever have to go to war again, I’ll be a happy man.”
Rep. Andy Biggs, a former chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he believed it was up to Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to handle the conflict going forward.
“My position is let the ceasefire take place and see if Iran will come back to the negotiating table,” Biggs said. “And if there needs to be further military action, the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, said that Israel can handle it.”
Rep. Austin Scott, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told NOTUS he hoped that both sides were trying to de-escalate the situation and that “it does not go any further than it already has.”
“But,” he said, “I do think the president did the right thing. I don’t think Iranians at this stage can be trusted with the nuclear materials that they had possession of.”
Trump and his administration argue that Iran’s government was lying about its nuclear ambitions. The White House maintains that Iran was enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb, and that the U.S. strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities were necessary for the United States’ safety and to get Iran back to negotiating a deal.
“He wanted Iran to come back to the negotiating table in good faith,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. “The problem is they weren’t there in the first place.”
Whether Trump’s decision to bomb Iran actually produces a lasting peace between Iran and Israel — or Iran and the U.S. — remains to be seen. But even as Republicans praised the president for his actions, there were some Republicans expressing more than just quiet uneasiness with Trump’s decision to involve the U.S. in military actions in a foreign country.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the president’s most loyal supporters in Congress, has been lashing out against Trump’s decision on social media.
“Only 6 months in and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and world war 3,” Greene said on X. “It feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons, warmongers, military industrial complex contracts, and neocon tv personalities that MAGA hates and who were NEVER TRUMPERS!”
Democrats, for their part, were also highly critical of the strikes — mostly because they believed Trump didn’t have congressional authority to use military force.
Democrats are advocating for a vote on a war powers resolution to check Trump’s military power — something which Johnson is resistant to give his counterparts.
“It’s all politics. This is not a time for politics,” Johnson said of the attempts to rein in the president.
But Johnson may not be able to fend off a vote on a war powers resolution forever. Under House and Senate rules, such a resolution is privileged, and lawmakers can force a vote within 15 days in the House. (The timeline is even shorter in the Senate, and Sen. Tim Kaine has said he expects a vote by the end of the week.)
Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have a resolution to limit the president’s ability to conduct war in Iran that will ripen next week. And even though Johnson is reportedly plotting out ways to prevent a straight up or down vote — Politico reported Monday that Johnson may try to vote on language to kill the privileged nature of the resolution — lawmakers would still be, in effect, voting on their ability to constrain the president’s war-making.
Given some of the apparent discomfort with a prolonged military campaign in Iran, some Republicans may join Massie and Democrats to check the president.
While Republicans stopped short of supporting the resolution, they were overwhelmingly supportive of a ceasefire deal, suggesting they hoped this was the end of U.S. involvement.
“I hope they walk away from this,” Rep. Mike Bost said of Iran.
He said he supported Trump’s actions — “I think the strike that we used was appropriate” — but also that the ball was in Iran’s court on whether they would “keep this up,” arguing “it’d be better of them not to keep it up at all.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, another stalwart Trump supporter, told NOTUS he supported the decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, but he also sounded hesitant when asked if America should do more strikes.
“I think we’ll just see what transpires here,” Jordan said. “But I don’t think Israel’s asking us to do more.”
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Daniella Diaz and Reese Gorman are reporters at NOTUS.