U.S. lawmakers react after Trump launches military operation against Iran

Reactions are pouring in after the United States and Israel announced a major military operation against Iran early Saturday, following weeks of threats from President Trump. 

Mr. Trump announced the assault, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” in a video on Truth Social. He called on Iran’s military forces to lay down their weapons and on Iran’s civilians to rise up and “take over your government.” Mr. Trump told the Washington Post that he wanted to secure freedom and safety for the Iranian people. 

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the action a “pivotal and necessary operation to protect Americans and American interests” and said the “Iranian regime has never been weaker.” 

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham said the operation had “been well-planned” and would be “violent, extensive and I believe, at the end of the day, successful.”

“My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us,” Graham, a Republican representing South Carolina, said on social media. He offered prayers for anyone participating in the operation, and said the effort will make “America more safe and eventually more prosperous.” 

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, shared a list of crimes committed by Iran and said the “butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs.” 

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat and vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, called the military operation “a deeply consequential decision that risks pulling the United States into another broad conflict in the Middle East.”

He condemned the Iranian regime for supporting terrorism and undermining regional stability, but said, “acknowledging those realities does not relieve any president of the responsibility to act within the law, with a clear strategy, and with Congress.”

“The American people have seen this playbook before – claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building. We owe it to our service members, and to every American family, to ensure that we are not repeating the mistakes of the past,” Warner said. “The president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?”

Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona and Iraq War veteran, criticized the operation. 

“I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war,” Gallego said on social media. “Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people. We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die.” 

Rep. Thomas Massie, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, appeared to describe the operation as “acts of war unauthorized by Congress” on social media. In June 2025, 

Massie introduced a resolution directing the president to “terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran” without an act of Congress. Democrats were planning to compel a vote on a war powers resolution introduced by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna.

Khanna said Saturday morning that Congress “must convene on Monday” to vote on the resolution “to stop this” and called on Congressional members to share their voting plans over the weekend. 

“Donald Trump has launched a war on Iran. The Congress must reconvene on Monday to vote on Thomas Massie’s and my war powers resolution to stop this war. Trump says his goal is to topple the Iranian regime,” Khanna said in a video. “But the American people are tired of regime change, wars that cost us billions of dollars and risk our lives. We don’t want to be at war with a country of 90 million people in the Middle East.” 

Rep. Nancy Mace  threw her support behind the president’s action, writing on social media: “President Trump understood what the weak could not bring themselves to say: that peace is not found in appeasement — it is won. The Iranian people have bled for their freedom. Their cries did not fall on deaf ears. Not on Trump’s watch.”