Reactions are pouring in after the United States and Israel announced a major military operation against Iran early Saturday, following weeks of threats from President Trump.
Mr. Trump announced the assault, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” in a video on Truth Social. He called on Iran’s military forces to lay down their weapons and on Iran’s civilians to rise up and “take over your government.” Mr. Trump told the Washington Post that he wanted to secure freedom and safety for the Iranian people.
Congressional leaders react
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Iran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile arsenal and support for terrorism “posed a clear and unacceptable threat to U.S. servicemembers, citizens in the region, and many of our allies,” and he praised praised President Trump for “taking action to thwart these threats.”
“I look forward to administration officials briefing all senators about these military operations,” he said. “I commend the bravery of the servicemembers carrying out these operations and pray for the safety of those in harm’s way.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Iran must never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon but the American people do not want another endless and costly war in the Middle East when there are so many problems at home.”
He said the Trump administration “has not provided Congress and the American people with critical details about the scope and immediacy of the threat” and called on the administration to brief Congress both publicly and privately.
“Confronting Iran’s malign regional activities, nuclear ambitions, and harsh oppression of the Iranian people demands American strength, resolve, regional coordination, and strategic clarity,” Schumer said. “Unfortunately, President Trump’s fitful cycles of lashing out and risking wider conflict are not a viable strategy.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said “Iran is facing the severe consequences of its evil actions,” and confirmed that the “Gang of Eight,” a group of eight congressional leaders who are legally required to be briefed on classified intelligence matters, had been briefed in detail “earlier this week that military action may become necessary to protect American troops and American citizens in Iran.”
The Trump administration “made every effort to pursue peaceful and diplomatic solutions in response to the Iranian regime’s sustained nuclear ambitions and development, terrorism, and the murder of Americans—and even their own people,” Johnson said. “For decades, Iran has defiantly maintained its nuclear program while arming and funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and other internationally recognized terrorist organizations. Iran and its proxies have menaced America and American lives, undermined our core national interests, systematically destabilized the Middle East, and threatened the security of the entire West.”
House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries said in a statement that Mr. Trump “failed to seek Congressional authorization prior to striking Iran,” and said his “decision to abandon diplomacy and launch a massive military attack has left American troops vulnerable to Iran’s retaliatory actions.”
“Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region,” Jeffries said. “However, absent exigent circumstances, the Trump administration must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war.”
Jeffries also said that if Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed by military strikes in June 2025, as Mr. Trump previously claimed, “there should be no need to strike them now.”
He said the president “must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately … clearly define the national security objective and articulate a plan to avoid another costly, prolonged military quagmire in the Middle East.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer praised what he called “a bold, decisive act of strength by President Trump” and said, “We pray that because of this leadership, the U.S. and the world will be a safer place.”
Republican reactions
Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the action a “pivotal and necessary operation to protect Americans and American interests” and said the “Iranian regime has never been weaker.”
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham said the operation had “been well-planned” and would be “violent, extensive and I believe, at the end of the day, successful.”
“My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us,” Graham, a Republican representing South Carolina, said on social media. He offered prayers for anyone participating in the operation, and said the effort will make “America more safe and eventually more prosperous.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, shared a list of crimes committed by Iran and said the “butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs.”
Rep. Nancy Mace threw her support behind the president’s action, writing on social media: “President Trump understood what the weak could not bring themselves to say: that peace is not found in appeasement — it is won. The Iranian people have bled for their freedom. Their cries did not fall on deaf ears. Not on Trump’s watch.”
Not all Republicans endorsed the Iran strikes. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, said in a post on X, “I am opposed to this War,” and promised to work with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to force a congressional vote on the Iran war. He said, “The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”
Last year, Massie introduced a resolution after the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that would direct the president to “terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran” without an act of Congress.
Sen. Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, quoted James Madison, who in a letter to Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “the Executive Branch is the branch most prone to war, therefore, the Constitution, with studied care, delegated the war power to the legislature.” Paul said in a post on X, “As with all war, my first and purest instinct is wish Americans soldiers safety and success in their mission. But my oath of office is to the Constitution, so with studied care, I must oppose another Presidential war.”
Democrats’ reactions
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat and vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, called the military operation “a deeply consequential decision that risks pulling the United States into another broad conflict in the Middle East.”
He condemned the Iranian regime for supporting terrorism and undermining regional stability, but said, “Acknowledging those realities does not relieve any president of the responsibility to act within the law, with a clear strategy, and with Congress.”
“The American people have seen this playbook before – claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building. We owe it to our service members, and to every American family, to ensure that we are not repeating the mistakes of the past,” Warner said. “The president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?”
Rep. Jim Himes, a ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, called the operation “a war of choice with no strategic endgame.” Himes is a member of the Gang of Eight. He was notified ahead of the start of the operation, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Himes said that he told Secretary of State Marco Rubio during that briefing that “military action in this region almost never ends well for the United States, and conflict with Iran can easily spiral and escalate in ways we cannot anticipate.”
“It does not appear that Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history,” Himes said.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania expressed his support for the U.S. strikes on Iran.
“President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region,” Fetterman said. “God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel.”
Last summer, Fetterman joined his Republican colleagues to vote against a measure that would have blocked Mr. Trump from using military force against Iran. He was the only Democrat to do so.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona and Iraq War veteran, criticized the operation.
“I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war,” Gallego said on social media. “Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people. We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die.”
Khanna said Saturday morning that Congress “must convene on Monday” to vote on the resolution “to stop this” and called on Congressional members to share their voting plans over the weekend. Himes said that Mr. Trump’s “own statement acknowledges this is war.”
“Donald Trump has launched a war on Iran. The Congress must reconvene on Monday to vote on Thomas Massie’s and my war powers resolution to stop this war. Trump says his goal is to topple the Iranian regime,” Khanna said in a video. “But the American people are tired of regime change, wars that cost us billions of dollars and risk our lives. We don’t want to be at war with a country of 90 million people in the Middle East.”
Sen. Tim Kaine also called on the Senate to “immediately return to session” and vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution “to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran.”
“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East? Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?” he said. “For months, I have raised hell about the fact that the American people want lower prices, not more war—especially wars that aren’t authorized by Congress, as required by the Constitution, and don’t have a clear objective.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris called the operation “Trump’s war of choice” and condemned the strike on Iran, saying in a statement, “I am opposed to a regime-change war in Iran, and our troops are being put in harm’s way for the sake of Trump’s war of choice.” She referred to the U.S. offensive as “a dangerous and unnecessary gamble with American lives that also jeopardizes stability in the region and our standing in the world.”
Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election to Mr. Trump, pointed out that he had promised during his presidential campaign to end wars, not to start them. “That was a lie,” she wrote. “He said ‘we obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program. That, too, was a lie,” Harris said. And she called on Congress to “use all available power to prevent him from further committing us to this conflict.”