A Republican lawmaker who felt compelled to withhold his identity in a media report to warn that President Donald Trump’s war on Iran could trigger a “Doomsday” scenario if Tehran retaliates has sparked a sharp response about the current state of political affairs in the United States.
While many Republican lawmakers have publicly expressed support for Trump’s strikes on Iran, several have privately griped about the military operation.
The GOP member of Congress in question told the Financial Times that they were “worried” about a possible “doomsday” scenario” unfolding if Tehran and its proxies retaliate.
“If we bomb, disrupt and exit, there is no telling what could happen over the course of the summer,” the unnamed lawmaker told the newspaper in an article headlined, “Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war.”
“I don’t know that the administration could have possibly thought it through,” the anonymous Republican added.
Andrew Day, a senior editor of The American Conservative, said the lawmaker’s decision to remain anonymous so as not to upset the president suggested something has gone “wrong” in America’s political system.
“Something has gone terribly wrong in our system of checks and balances when a lawmaker, frightened of the president, demands anonymity to say s/he’s worried POTUS may have triggered ‘doomsday’ by launching a poorly planned war,” Day wrote in a post on X and shared a screenshot of the quote in the FT.
It follows several House Republicans who spoke out against Trump this week on the condition of anonymity, with one drawing parallels to the U.S. invasion of Vietnam.
The strikes have left hundreds of Iranians dead, including 150 children at an elementary school near the Strait of Hormuz, which U.S. investigators reportedly believe American forces were likely responsible for.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s 86-year-old supreme leader, was also killed, alongside several members of his family.
In retaliation, Iran has bombed U.S. assets and allies in the region, including in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Six U.S. service members have been killed.
Trump has said the Iran attacks could last for weeks — if not longer. This lack of a clear timeline triggered a sense of deja vu within one GOP lawmaker who spoke to Politico.
“Sounds a little bit like President Lyndon Johnson going into Vietnam, doesn’t it?” the lawmaker said.
Johnson, a Democrat, inherited the Vietnam war upon President John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. He presided over a dramatic escalation, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. service members and countless more Vietnamese.
A handful of GOP members of Congress have also spoken out publicly to criticize the president involving the U.S. in another Middle East conflict.
“The constitutional sequence is, you engage the public before you go to war unless an attack is imminent. And imminent means like, imminent — not like something that’s been over a 47-year period of time,” Republican Rep. Warren Davidson, of Ohio, said this week.
Rep. Eli Crane, an Arizona Republican, described the current situation as “very dicey” in an interview Monday. “Military operations like this can go sideways so fast, you know, it will make your head spin.”
