As President Donald Trump pleads for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the nation’s war with Iran, Democrats in Congress have offered an unequivocal — and historically unusual — message. Trump’s operation in Iran has now become the most partisan war in modern US history, marking the first time that one party is willing to fully reject wartime funding requests from the country’s commander-in-chief. Democrats are, for the first time in at least a century, in lockstep against a war from the start.
They are refusing to support more funding. They are voting en masse to demand Trump pull troops out. They are even rejecting a broader Pentagon policy measure in protest — which includes provisions mostly unrelated to this particular war, such as one that would raise troop pay.
It’s a seismic political shift from years past, when Democrats would cower from accusations of not supporting troops in the middle of a conflict. But party lawmakers contend that the American public, including Republican voters, are on their side, and that the GOP’s support for the war will be a real dividing line heading into the November election. “They absolutely own it,” a fired-up Rep.
Pat Ryan of New York, who served two tours in Iraq, said of Republicans. “We’ve lost multiple additional soldiers. They’ve lied and covered up casualties.
Like, what are you doing?” GOP leaders are furious, with Speaker Mike Johnson calling it “shameful” for Democrats to refuse funding for the Pentagon, especially amid concerns about depleted munitions and as the administration has sought nearly $70 billion more in emergency cash to help pay for military operations in Iran. “Democrats don’t want to play along,” Johnson said. Because they have a problem with the president, and they think they’re going to get a political advantage over this.” Democrats’ opposition is multifold.
The party is generally more skeptical now of foreign entanglements and much less sympathetic to Israel, the key US partner in Iran. But the party is even more suspicious of Trump — particularly compared to the last GOP administration in wartime — and are incensed at how he’s handled nearly every part of the war in Iran. And they’re emboldened by the president’s failure to sell the conflict to the public from the beginning, setting the table for a war that is uniquely unpopular just months into the conflict, despite fierc…
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