WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, and one Democrat, maintained their support for President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, after blocking for the fifth time a resolution that would force the president to seek congressional authorization for further action in the Middle East.

The vote failed 46-51, largely following the same split as previous failed measures. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., opposed the resolution to rein in Trump, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted in favor, just as they have in the four times prior. 

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, David McCormick, R-Pa., and Mark Warner, D-Va. were absent.

Thirteen U.S. service members and thousands of civilians across the Middle East have died in the war, which the Trump administration has claimed is about regime change and stopping Iran’s nuclear program.

As of Wednesday, the Pentagon updated the number of American troops injured in the conflict to 400.

Fetterman and all but one Senate Republican blocked the measure one day after Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran after the prospects of a second round of peace talks fell through. Trump did not specify an end date to the ceasefire extension but announced the United States would not back down on its blockade of ships traveling to and from Iranian ports.

Trump claimed late Tuesday night that Iran is “collapsing financially!” 

“They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

U.S. military forces fired on and seized a sanctioned Iranian cargo ship Sunday.

Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, wrote Tuesday on X that the seizure was “an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire.” 

Early Wednesday, Iran claimed responsibility for attacking two commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a key narrow maritime passage where a fifth of the world’s petroleum flowed prior to the war. Iranian parliament representative Ebrahim Rezaei declared on X, “an eye for an eye, an oil tanker for an oil tanker.” 

Baldwin leads opposition to war

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., lead sponsor of Wednesday’s War Powers Resolution, said on the floor ahead of the vote that Trump sold Americans “a bad bill of goods” when he campaigned on lowering costs and not starting any new foreign wars.

“This war has taken us backwards and created more problems for the people that I work for,” she said, citing increasing fuel and fertilizer costs as a result of a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation numbers reflected a 21% increase in the cost of fuel from February to March.

A gallon of regular gas remained on average just north of $4 across the country, according to AAA.

United Airlines announced Wednesday it plans to raise airfare as much as 20% to offset the cost of jet fuel, according to multiple media reports.

Brent crude oil, the global oil market’s standard, spiked above $100 a barrel Wednesday, as it has numerous times since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.

“Less than two months ago, oil prices were normal, the Straits of Hormuz was open, commerce was happening,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., ahead of the vote. 

“And then President Trump made the decision without a rationale, without a plan, without consulting with allies, without consulting or seeking a vote of Congress to enter the nation into yet another war in the Middle East. And the entire world is suffering,” Kaine said.

Trump entered the joint war on Iran alongside Israel on Feb. 28.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said passing the resolution would be “unwise.”

“We’ve been through these votes recently, and nothing has occurred in the makeup of this body or in the situation in Iran or the Middle East to materially change since the last time we voted on this matter,” the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said on the floor ahead of the vote. 

Wicker was the only Republican to speak out against the resolution during Wednesday afternoon’s debate.

Earlier vote

Senate Democrats last forced a vote to stop Trump’s actions in Iran on April 15, just days after the president threatened on social media to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” and to bomb its power plants and bridges.

Senate Democrats say they have no plans to stop introducing War Powers Resolutions and speaking out against the war.

Several sent a letter Sunday to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding answers about “troubling allegations of civilian harm incidents,” including a strike on an elementary school that killed more than 160 children on the war’s opening day.

“We are concerned that these were all preventable tragedies. The high human toll of this war reflects the administration’s broader disregard for the strategic, legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm,” the senators wrote.

The letter, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., was also signed by Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Tina Smith, D-Minn.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Peter Welch, D-Vt. and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. 

The 11 senators who joined Baldwin in sponsoring Wednesday’s War Powers Resolution, a vestige of Congress’ efforts to rein in President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, included Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Gillibrand, Kaine, Merkley and Van Hollen, as well as Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Andy Kim, D-N.J.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Capitol Hill Thursday slammed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on Iran as “beyond the pale” and urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to reconvene Congress and rein in the president’s war powers.

The eight Democrats, who represent districts in California, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington state, made a largely symbolic attempt to bring a War Powers Resolution to the House floor during the morning’s pro forma session — a short, routine meeting that occurs when Congress is out of session. The House is not scheduled to return until April 14.

“The pro forma speaker ignored us, which was a tragedy, but we will keep fighting,” Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said.

U.S. House Democrats discuss the Iran war on April 9, 2026. (Video by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Efforts to limit Trump’s military actions in Iran failed last month in both the House and Senate.

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who led a press conference afterward on the steps outside the House of Representatives, said Trump’s war with Iran is on “the wrong track.”

“He’s been terrible at the wheel. The threats of total annihilation were beyond the pale. It’s time for Congress to step in and take control of the wheel,” Ivey said.

Threats and then a ceasefire

Trump threatened Tuesday to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” if the regime did not open the Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime passageway for one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas. 

The United States and Iran entered a tenuous two-week ceasefire agreement roughly 90 minutes before Trump hit his self-imposed deadline to begin bombing civilian infrastructure, likely a war crime.

One day into the ceasefire Wednesday, the pause in fighting was punctuated by Iranian drones and missiles striking Gulf nations. Israeli forces reported launching 100 strikes in Lebanon in 10 minutes. The wave of intense bombardment killed roughly 300 and injured just over 1,100, according to health officials cited by the United Nations.

Trump’s post urging violence on his social media platform, Truth Social, followed his Easter Sunday profanity-laced message threatening to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges unless they lifted their blockade on the strait.

The regime has for weeks only allowed a trickle of tankers and cargo ships from certain friendly countries to pass, routing the traffic through Iranian waters and reportedly charging steep tolls. Islamic Republic officials told the Financial Times Wednesday that they planned to charge tankers $1 per barrel of oil, to be paid in cryptocurrency, going forward. 

Prior to the war, roughly 140 ships a day flowed freely through the strait. The chokepoint has rocked the global oil market.

Ivey called the situation “out of control.”

“In fact, Iran’s in a better place with respect to the strait than they were before this war started,” he said.

Pentagon reports 380 injured troops

The war has claimed thousands of lives across the Middle East, and scores of civilians have been injured. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in the fighting, and as of Thursday the Pentagon reported 380 injured.

“Look at us now in a war of his choosing, egged on by Mr. (Benjamin) Netanyahu for his purposes, a war that has proved deadly to 13 members of the American military,” said Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., referring to the Israeli prime minister.

“The speaker must live up to his constitutional responsibilities. Call us back in, consider the War Powers Resolution, let the American people and their representatives in Congress weigh in. The words and actions of this president have proved that he is unhinged and unwell,” Scanlon said.

Johnson’s office did not immediately respond for comment.

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran both claimed victory Wednesday, a day after agreeing to a two-week conditional ceasefire, though doubts loomed following continued strikes across the Gulf nations and an indication by Iran that it will continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, a major passage for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas. 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during an early-morning briefing the U.S. achieved an “historic and overwhelming victory,” but also troops are “prepared to restart at a moment’s notice.”

“We’ll be hanging around. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to make sure Iran complies with this ceasefire, and then ultimately comes to the table and makes a deal,” Hegseth said.

Oil prices dropped sharply after news of the ceasefire, with Brent crude, the international standard, sitting at $95 a barrel before noon Eastern Wednesday. That’s down from the previous day’s price of nearly $110 per barrel. 

U.S. stocks shot up Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all on the rise.

U.S. and Iranian delegations were set to arrive in Islamabad Friday for negotiations, according to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who in part brokered the pause in fighting.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at an afternoon briefing that Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will attend a first round of talks Saturday morning.

Nuclear material

President Donald Trump said early Wednesday morning that the U.S. “will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!”

“There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust,’” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social, referring to Iran’s buried enriched uranium following heavy U.S.-Israeli bombing in June.

When pressed at the briefing, Hegseth said of the nuclear material: “We’re watching it. We know what they have, and they will give it up, and we’ll get it, and we’ll take it if we have to. We can do it in any means necessary. So that’s something the president is going to solve for.”

Hegseth ended the press conference saying the Iranian public has been “oppressed by the previous regime, and they’ll have a new opportunity with this regime that remains to be seen,” adding that a civilian uprising was “not our objective.” 

“We wish them the best,” Hegseth said. 

Hegseth’s claim about a civilian uprising directly contradicted Trump’s message to the Iranian people on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel began the bombing.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the Islamic Republic from 1989 until U.S. and Israeli strikes assassinated him hours into the conflict. Experts point to Mojtaba Khamenei as being a conservative hardliner with close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Reports across Iranian state media and Middle East regional news outlets Wednesday quoted the regime’s Supreme National Security Council as declaring an “historic and crushing defeat” over the U.S. and Israel.

Calls for invocation of 25th Amendment

Hegseth’s victory declaration came after Trump on Tuesday threatened Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight” if the regime did not meet his self-imposed 8 p.m. Eastern deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz. 

The comments drew intense criticism, with some — from progressive Democrats to former Trump loyalists — calling for the president’s removal under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment.

Two Senate Republicans, John Curtis of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, denounced Trump’s rhetoric and actions in recent days. One House GOP member, Nathaniel Moore of Texas, also joined them Tuesday. 

The offices of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not respond to States Newsroom Tuesday for comment on Trump’s remark that he would wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization.” Neither have posted anything regarding Trump’s comments on their X social media feeds, where they regularly communicate to the public.

Others continued to support Trump. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told local media Tuesday “I take it with a grain of salt,” when asked about Trump’s vow to wipe out Iran’s civilization.

Leavitt told reporters at the White House briefing Wednesday, “The world should take his word very seriously.”

“He said that they would face very grave consequences … by the 8 p.m. deadline if they did not agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And what did they do last night? They agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” she said.

Roughly 90 minutes before his deadline to order strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges, the president agreed to stop the bombardment for two weeks, after receiving a 10-point plan from Iran that “is a workable basis on which to negotiate,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In a statement released early Wednesday morning Tehran time, Iran appeared to retain control of the narrow passage in and out of the Persian Gulf.

“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations,” the country’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said in a written statement posted on social media. 

Iranian drones and missiles

Strikes continued across the Gulf region, with Kuwait’s defense ministry reporting “an intense wave” of Iranian drones and missiles that damaged oil infrastructure, power stations and water desalination plants.

“Violations of ceasefire have been reported at (a) few places across the conflict zone which undermine the spirit of peace process. I earnestly and sincerely urge all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed upon, so that diplomacy can take a lead role towards peaceful settlement of the conflict,” Sharif warned on X just after 10 a.m. Eastern. 

The Pakistani prime minister tagged in the post Trump and numerous administration officials, as well as Iranian leaders.

Israel continued bombardment on southern Lebanon, launching widespread strikes across the region and in the capital city of Beirut Wednesday. By noon Eastern, which is evening in Lebanon, health authorities said 89 people were killed in the strikes and over 700 had been injured. An official with Doctors Without Borders reporting from a large public hospital in Beirut cited a higher death toll.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on social media early Wednesday that “The two-weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon.”

When asked during the White House press briefing Wednesday, Leavitt echoed Netanyahu.

“Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire that has been related to all parties involved in the ceasefire,” she said.