As President Donald Trump has said that his war in Iran might be over soon, skeptical Republicans have three words for the president: “Finish the job.”
The president spoke to Axios on Wednesday, saying that there was “practically nothing left to target” in Iran and that “The war is going great.”
But hawkish Republicans want to make sure that Trump actually completes the work in Iran and does not cut out solely for political reasons.
“I mean, it would be ideal,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said of Trump’s “nothing left to target” remarks.
“But,” the Trump-skeptical Republican told The Independent, “I think every mine that’s been dropped in this Strait of Hormuz is another target that we need to take care of so that we can get shipping and everything else underway.”
The president has said that the United States knocked out 28 mine ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’ve knocked out their navy, their military in all forms. We’ve knocked out just about everything there is, including their leadership,” he said on Wednesday. Tillis said he has not received the most recent information.
“That’s a sweeping statement because there are a lot of layers to what the Iranian Guard, the army and their national police force have available to them,” he said. “So it’ll be, it’ll be good to get the briefing to substantiate that, but we still have to talk about what’s next.”
Tillis is not alone. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who played a crucial role in torpedoing Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security, said that as far as he knew, the White House is ahead of schedule on eliminating Iran’s drone production facilities, infrastructure for the Revolutionary Guard, navy, air force and missile production facilities.
“The worst thing that we could do would be to panic and leave before the job is done,” Kennedy told reporters. “I think we’re talking about a matter of weeks.”
Still, plenty of Republicans worry about rising energy prices given that a fifth of the world’s oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz. But Kennedy, echoing the White House line on the subject, said once the U.S. leaves Iran, “you will see oil prices go down like a fat guy on a seesaw.”
Republican senators have long taken a stronger stance against Iran than Democrats, dating back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which put in place the extremist regime that exists to this day. Many Republicans say they want to ensure Iran cannot promote terror groups or prop up organizations like Hezbollah.
“That would be great, but I hope we’ve done our job,” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida told The Independent. “We hope we got rid of their ability to produce ballistic missiles, in no way they’re going to have nuclear weapons.”
Unlike other Republican presidents, Trump has shown little interest in toppling regimes or putting in a new government, preferring attempts to cut off the head of governments and then leaving quickly.
This was the case earlier this year when he ordered the strikes that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, but left the regime in place, despite the fact many conservatives wanted to see a more pro-democracy regime installed.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, said that he thought that Trump was trying to find an off-ramp as energy prices spike.
“I think the President, again, is trying to figure out the best way to get what he wants, but he doesn’t know what he wants,” Gallego told The Independent.
