Democratic senators have warned that President Donald Trump has no endgame after greenlighting joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran, which killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and unleashed a barrage of retaliatory attacks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a classified briefing to lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday that appears to have done little to allay concerns about the conflict that has erupted across the Middle East.
Speaking to Kaitlan Collins on CNN Tuesday evening, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallago, an Iraq War veteran, said: “The most important thing that came away from this was, number one, we don’t have a plan on how to get out of this.
“We don’t actually have a concept of victory. We – you know, our justification for going into the war is entirely different from what we’re hearing from the president right now. Again, this is even after the president went publicly and spoke to that. And that all is a very scary situation.
“Like, for me, as someone who had to live through some really bad decisions in 2005 that the, you know, the then-administration did, if we don’t know how we can get out of this war, if we don’t know what the actual victory is, we’re seeing potentially a long-term war.”
He added: “The president has not been very clear how and when it ends. And more importantly, the American public does not want this right now.”
A snap poll over the weekend found that only one in four U.S. citizens supported the strikes, backing up the senator’s argument.
Gallego’s concerns were shared by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said in a social media video after the briefing: “It is so much worse than you thought. You are right to be worried. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran.
“This illegal war is based on lies and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn’t given a single clear reason for this war and he seems to have no plan for how to end it either.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters in Washington after emerging from the briefing he was left with more questions than answers and was “more fearful than ever” that Trump could end up putting boots on the ground in Iran to restore order.
The president’s mixed messaging about the airstrikes, their ultimate purpose and likely duration attracted particular attention.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz added: “There are times when you go into a classified session and you walk out with a better understanding about the gravity of the situation and the rationale behind the military action. This is not one of those times.
“We remain as confused as the American people are. They have had three or four or five justifications for this act of war over the last four or five days, and nothing in this classified session alleviated that confusion.”
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, also a veteran, wrote on X (Twitter) in response to a since-deleted tweet from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem advising Americans to leave the region: “There could not be a clearer sign that there was no plan. No plan for what’s next. No plan to get Americans to safety. None whatsoever.
“On the one hand, the Trump Administration is encouraging Americans in the Middle East to leave the region immediately. On the other, their illegal war has closed most of the region’s airports and airspace – and they’re telling them ‘they’re on their own.’
“It’s a complete failure of leadership. Trump’s war of choice is leaving Americans stranded in this chaos with no way out.”
Duckworth was one of several Democrats who criticized the president earlier this week for his, as they saw it, callous remarks about U.S. servicemembers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait Sunday, an attack that left six dead and which Trump described as, “The way it is.”
Members of Trump’s own MAGA coalition have also rejected his play against Iran, with Tucker Carlson calling it “evil”, Megyn Kelly and guest Erik Prince speaking out against it on her Sirius XM show, and even far-right pundits like Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes calling it out.
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