GOP patience with Iran operation growing thinner as Trump escalates tensions

Some Republican lawmakers are growing wary about the military conflict in Iran, which has entered its sixth week and could escalate further after President Trump urged Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face “all Hell.”

The Iran operation is unfolding at a politically precarious moment for Republicans, as the midterm election season ramps up and segments of the MAGA base grow increasingly restless over a perceived drift away from the “America First” agenda. While Trump initially projected the operation would only last for four to five weeks, he has since escalated tensions — most notably by threatening strikes on Iran’s infrastructure over the weekend — and hasn’t ruled out U.S. boots on the ground, moves that risk a longer, more entangled conflict.

GOP lawmakers were almost in lockstep behind Trump when he launched the strikes in February, but some now say they want Congress to step in and assert its authority if the conflict extends beyond 60 days.

“Constitutional limits are in place to temper the president from unilateral authority. I support the president’s actions taken in defense of American lives and interests. However, I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) wrote in an op-ed for Deseret News on April 1, adding that the War Powers Resolution of 1973 limits the president’s period of time to respond to “emerging threats.”

A 60-day period is “a fully sufficient window for presidents to take emergency measures in response to a national threat and then remit a decision to the duly elected representatives of the people as to whether a state of war should in fact be declared and continued,” Curtis wrote.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told The Hill on Monday that he’d consider a vote on a war powers resolution if the conflict extends past 60 days. 

“I do think Iran has been a threat for 47 years, and they’ve killed roughly a thousand Americans. But I’d consider the........

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