Sen. Mark Kelly says Trump administration is “flailing” in Iran and “has to try to figure out a way out of this”

Washington — Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said on Sunday that the Trump administration is “flailing” in its war with Iran, while urging the president to use a different tack to find a way out five months after the conflict began.

“They’re stuck, they’re responsible for this, and the president is the one that has to try to figure out a way out of this,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Kelly added: “I would suggest to him, though, that the solution is not to do the same thing that he’s been doing — not to have his real estate buddy and his son-in-law in charge of a negotiation.” 

“To put some people in here that know how to do this, how to talk to the Iranians, and put a coalition together, bring our allies back together,” the Arizona Democrat said. 

President Trump announced Saturday night that he was canceling a pending attack on Iran and indicated that a rough framework of a peace deal had been reached, after the conflict escalated in recent weeks following the collapse of a ceasefire last month. The president’s proposal calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations, a regional official involved in mediation efforts told The Associated Press.

The war, which began on Feb. 28, is unpopular among Americans, according to CBS News polling. But when asked which party has a better approach to Iran, 32% said Mr. Trump and the GOP, while 30% said Democrats. But Kelly put the blame squarely on the president, accusing him of getting into the war “without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline.”

Kelly, who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, also voiced concerns about the Pentagon’s funding requests, as the Trump administration pushes for $67 billion in supplemental funding and a broader $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027. The Arizona senator referenced last year’s defense budget, which he said “was sold to us as a one-time generational investment in the department.”

“In my view, they squandered that,” Kelly said. “Now they’re coming and they’re asking for 1.5 trillion, plus a supplemental. We’re approaching the amount of money that every other country on the planet spends on defense in a year. This is irresponsible, and now they want a blank check.”

Kelly said while he’s going to “make sure the troops have what they need to defend themselves and defend the United States,” he stressed that the Pentagon needs to pursue a “reasonable approach.” 

Kelly, a former astronaut and retired Navy captain, pointed specifically to space-based interceptors within the $1.5 trillion budget request, noting that “the physics on this is really very, very challenging.” He said “it’s not going to make us safer,” while arguing that “there are other systems that we don’t need.”

“They need to understand that we do not have unlimited resources in this country,” Kelly said.