As J.D. Vance struggles to finalize a peace deal with Iran, and Trump threatens to resume bombing his adversary if they don’t comply, Congress is voting to halt the war altogether. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 50-48 on a resolution ordering the president to pull forces out of Iran pending the legislative branch actually authorizing the war.
The resolution is not actually binding, but it marks another bipartisan rebuke of the war. Four Republican senators — Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — broke with the party to vote in favor of the resolution.
“We should take a stand today and end this war, and we should finally start putting the interests of the American people ahead of costly and unnecessary conflicts,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told the Senate ahead of the vote.
Earlier this month, the House voted on a similar measure to end the war — which was unilaterally started by the president without the authorization of Congress in February. Democrats in the House were joined by Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Brian FItzpatrick (R-Pa.), Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) in passing their own symbolic resolution condemning the war.
The resolution can’t force the president to take specific actions, but the move is an indication that Congress — like the American public at large — is losing tolerance for the president’s antics in regard to Iran.
Trump continues to undermine peace talks by repeatedly threatening to reignite the conflict. Around the same time of the Senate’s vote, Trump declared at an event in Pennsylvania that “the only thing they understand is the hammer,” in reference to Iran.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that if Lebanon did not cease its military skirmishes with Israel — which have been taking place since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war and escalated in the aftermath of Trump’s Iranian offensive, he would “hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
Congress may have formally wagged their finger at the president, but in the end he does what he wants.
