The US Senate approved a war powers resolution preventing Donald Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran, delivering the president a significant but symbolic rebuke over a conflict that has proven unpopular with the American public.
The resolution passed by a 50-48 vote, with four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky – breaking with their party to support its adoption. John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, was the sole Democrat to vote against the resolution.
The measure, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, would require the president to seek Congress’s authorization to use military force against Iran. It comes after Trump dispatched JD Vance to Switzerland to negotiate a settlement that would resolve the conflict the US began alongside Israel in February.
The resolution does not require the president’s signature, and Trump and his Republican allies have questioned the constitutionality of the 1973 War Powers Act under which it was passed. Nonetheless, its success underscores the discontent among Republicans over a conflict that has grown deeply unpopular with voters ahead of the November midterm elections, in which Republicans will be defending their control of Congress.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found that a mere 23% of Americans believed the United States was stronger because of the war with Iran; nearly two-thirds thought any truce with Tehran was unlikely to last.
The resolution’s passage in the Senate was enabled by the absences of two Republicans: Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was admitted to the hospital last week. Neither has supported previous war powers resolutions, which Democrats have been forcing votes on regularly since the war with Iran began.
“Trump’s historic blunder in Iran will go down in the history books as one of the worst foreign policy forays America has ever made, or any country has ever made,” the Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said ahead of the vote on Tuesday. “The American people have seen skyrocketing gas prices, soaring costs, and, tragically, the loss of 13 service members, and the wounding of hundreds more, and meanwhile, Iran took Trump to the cleaners.”
Greg Meeks, the top Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee who sponsored the resolution, said in a statement he would “explore all legal avenues to ensure the executive complies with the will of Congress”.
“Congress never authorized this failed war, and the president certainly has no authority to continue it indefinitely without our consent as the constitution demands,” Meeks said.
