President Donald Trump was “mad as a murder hornet” at the handful of Senate Republicans who voted to defy him on Iran war powers.
So said Sen. John Kennedy, the quotable Louisiana Republican, of the Senate GOP luncheon that by all accounts devolved into a foodfight.
Trump had kinder words for his Iranian negotiating partners after the meeting than he did for Republican senators who refuse to pass the SAVE Act. Some Republicans, including anti-interventionist stalwart Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, agreed to change their votes to bolster Trump’s bargaining position now that the White House is seemingly committed to ending the war.
Less understandable is the far greater number of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are angry at Trump and especially Vice President J.D. Vance for attempting to extricate our country from this mess. For it is these members of Congress who are most likely to lose their seats, committee chairmanships, majorities, and perhaps even their careers if the Republican message headed into the midterm elections is war si, affordability no.
Inflation zipped back up to 4.1 percent in the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge, more than double the rate the central bank deems necessary for basic price stability. After cooling over the past several years, including at the beginning of Trump’s second term, a war-induced spike in energy prices has brought inflation roaring back to its highest level since Joe Biden had it running at or near a 41-year high.
As off-message as Trump’s complaints about the bipartisan housing bill were, the war is driving the current affordability crisis. Voters are getting so fed up that they are even turning to socialists to make things more affordable. It is worth remembering that without the Iraq War, Democrats would never have had the majorities necessary to pass the Affordable Care Act.
The voters who put Trump over the top and gave Republicans control of the Senate in 2024 were not casting their ballots for higher inflation and more foreign wars. Nor was that what Trump delivered in his first term, despite taking a hard line against the ayatollahs, shredding Barack Obama’s version of an Iran nuclear deal, applying maximum pressure, and striking Qasem Soleimani.
Trump left office with inflation at 1.4 percent, below the Fed’s long-term target, and leaving no new wars to his successor in Iran or elsewhere.
No such luck this time around. But Trump and Vance are trying to get out of this ditch or at least stop digging, if only the legislators whose jobs might be saved in the process would quit handing them shovels and demanding they dig deeper.
If Vance’s diplomacy is so preemptively awful, why didn’t the war Lindsey Graham wanted strengthen his bargaining positions? Suddenly, the hawks no longer sound as confident that past strikes have degraded the Iranian military or delayed its nuclear program.
But either these American-Israeli military actions have had some success in this area, in which case it would be useful context for even a deeply flawed agreement, or not, which would raise questions about the effectiveness of continuing the war indefinitely.
Just as some Democrats insist that failed government programs would succeed if taxpayers were a little more patient and willing to spend additional dollars, some Republicans maintain every stalled foreign intervention would turn into a resounding victory if the federal government could “stay the course” and “finish the job.”
The jobs most likely to be finished if this advice is heeded belong to Republicans representing battleground states and swing congressional districts.
Make no mistake: It is always nice to see politicians believe in something deeply enough to risk electoral defeat over it, even if they are prioritizing threat inflation over the type of inflation that remains on voters’ minds.
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But there is nothing wrong with the voters having other priorities, after several years of rampant inflation and more than two decades of wars of choice that came to unsatisfactory conclusions. Americans dislike and distrust the mullahs. But they are most worried about their moolah.
Vance’s intraparty detractors should realize that if voters are still talking about the war in Iran rather than domestic issues in November, much less 2028, Democrats are going to have to nominate the world’s most crazed Marxists for Republicans to have a chance.
That is the regime change Republicans should be fighting to avoid at the moment, from now until November.
