Trump’s War political fallout…..
‘Pretty Bad for Vance’: The VP’s Silence on Iran Peeves Allies
JD Vance used to praise Donald Trump for not starting wars.
In January 2023, then-Senator JD Vance took to the Wall Street Journalop-ed page to announce his early support for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. The primary reason for his support, he claimed, was that Trump “started no wars.”
“In Mr. Trump’s four years in office, he started no wars despite enormous pressure from his own party and even members of his own administration,” wrote Vance, then just one month into his first term as the junior senator from Ohio. Trump’s refusal to plunge the U.S. into any new foreign conflicts marked “the first real disruption to a failed consensus and the terrible consequences it wrought” — a record that, “more than any single accomplishment, is the enduring legacy of Mr. Trump’s first term.”
Now, as the Trump administration oversees a far-reaching assault on Iran’s Islamist regime, Vance is participating in a swift reversal of that legacy. The about-face is all the more striking for the vice president, who rose to national prominence as the standard-bearer of MAGA’s anti-interventionist faction that took shape in opposition to the “forever wars” in the Middle East, and which has harshly criticized U.S. intervention in more recent foreign conflicts like Russia’s war in Ukraine. More recently, Vance has positioned himself as a vocal Republican skeptic of war with Iran, arguing as recently as October of 2024that “our interest, I think very much is not going to war with Iran.”
Against that backdrop, Trump’s attack on Iran appears to be a major political setback for Vance and the anti-interventionist faction on the right — even in the eyes of Vance’s putative allies.
“It’s pretty bad for Vance,” said the leader of a prominent right-leaning nonprofit organization that advocates for a more restrained foreign policy, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive coalitional dynamics. “He had to perform the dutiful task of being the subordinate and trying to convince people like us that this was actually in good hands — and that’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Vance has been circumspect about revealing his role in the administration’s decision to move forward with the strikes…..
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Trump knocks Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly over Iran criticism: ‘MAGA is Trump’
President Trump and his allies are pushing back on a number of top conservative media figures typically loyal to him who have questioned ongoing U.S. military action in Iran amid fears of a prolonged war in the Middle East.
“I have to do what’s right, number one — and you can’t have Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That’s predominant to me,” Trump told the independent journalist Rachel Bade on Monday.
The president said former Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, both of whom have publicly broken with him over U.S. military operations in Iran, do not represent the view among his base of supporters.
“I think that MAGA is Trump — MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump said, adding of Kelly specifically that “she was critical of me for years and I didn’t lose. I won all three times by a lot.”
“MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe,” he continued. “And MAGA loves what I’m doing — every aspect of it. … This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”….
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Greene: Trump could use manufactured crisis to cancel midterms
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Sunday said President Trump could attempt to use a national emergency declaration to cancel midterm elections.
Greene said she could “see it” happening in a post on the social platform X made in response to a post from radio host Shannon Joy.
“Trump doesn’t seem to care about the midterms. Who wants to bet he’ll declare a ‘national emergency’ because of Iran (or some other manufactured crisis) and try to cancel the elections in November?” Joy wrote in a Sunday post on X.
The former congresswoman wrote back, “Yeah I could see it. INSANE.”….
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Speaker Johnson pushes against war powers resolution: ‘Frightening’
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said passing a war powers resolution would strip President Trump of the authority to complete his military operation in Iran, warning that such a move would be a “frightening prospect.”
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) plan to force a vote on a war powers resolution this week that would require authorization from Congress before Trump can use military force against Iran again. The pair argued that the operation in Iran puts U.S. troops at risk and isn’t emblematic of an “America First” agenda…
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Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island made clear he intended to use a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press for answers about the expanding military action in Iran.“What are the Administration’s objectives in Iran? What is the theory of victory? And what authority does the Administration believe it is waging this war under, given that Congress has not been consulted or authorized any conflict?” Mr. Reed asked at the outset of a hearing with a Pentagon official. The hearing is the first public opportunity for lawmakers to question administration officials about the decision to launch strikes in Iran, the legal rationale underpinning them and the strategy moving forward….
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Senate Republicans are warning President Trump against expanding the U.S. military offensive in Iran after he indicated he is willing to go as far as needed in order to complete the mission in the region.
GOP lawmakers largely backed Trump’s decision to order strikes against Tehran and other key locations over the weekend in coordination with Israel. But they indicated Monday they still have some major questions that need to be answered….
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For Democrats demoralized at being shut out of power in Washington, the past several months have offered reason for optimism.
A party often beset by ideological division has largely been unified in opposition to President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration tactics, particularly after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minneapolis. Heading into a midterm election year in which they are just a few seats shy of reclaiming the U.S. House majority, Democrats have also kept the White House on defense with criticism of Trump’s economic policies and ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
But the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran could test the durability of that cohesion. Initially, Democrats balanced condemnation of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed over the weekend, with calls for Congress to quickly pass a war powers resolution that would restrain Trump’s attack options.
“As soon as our resolution comes to the floor, senators need to pick a side,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday. “Stand with Americans who don’t want war, or stand with Donald Trump as he single-handedly starts another war.”
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