The Senate Democrats Open to Helping Trump Fund His War on Iran

Despite expressing frustration over Donald Trump’s war with Iran, some Democrats are still considering voting to boost military spending by billions of dollars.

At least four Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee haven’t ruled out additional funding for the Department of Defense: ranking member Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senators Gary Peters of Michigan, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

“I need to know the goals and the plan … I don’t rule anything out,” Slotkin told Politico. “I mean, we’re in it.”

“We have to look at what they need,” Reed said. “Some of it might be to fill in critical issues and other theaters of war they’ve taken things from.”

Defense and intelligence officials told Congress this week that the Pentagon may soon ask for emergency funding, but didn’t say when or how much it would need, although Politico reports that the White House is considering asking for $50 billion. But while some Democrats are open to new military funding, seven Democrats are needed to overcome a filibuster—and many others are not only skeptical of additional funding but outright hostile to the idea.

“Good luck. What Democrat is going to vote to fund an illegal war? I don’t think—with the exception of one Democrat—there will be any votes for it,” said Senator Chris Murphy Wednesday, likely referring to Senator John Fetterman, who was the lone Democrat to vote against a war powers resolution Tuesday requiring Trump to seek Congress’s approval for further military action in Iran.

Democrats in the House also scoffed at the idea of funding the war in Iran further.

Representative Pete Aguilar of California said he has “a duty and a responsibility to help protect this country” but is “incredibly skeptical” of giving emergency military funding for Trump. “It’s going to be pretty hard to move me off of a ‘no,’” he said.

“I mean, you lie to us, don’t consult us and then expect us to send more taxpayer money to a war that we shouldn’t have started with no plan and no answers,” said Representative Pat Ryan of New York, a military veteran. He called the $50 billion figure “outrageous.”

Several Senate Democrats left a Tuesday classified briefing on Iran aghast at the lack of planning by the administration, openly accusing the White House of lying, and worrying about whether ground troops would be deployed. To fund the war would require their concerns to be addressed, but even then, it won’t change the fact that Trump started a dangerous war on a whim.

The Trump administration is panicking over oil pricing spikes caused by the war it started on Iran.

An anonymous energy industry executive told Politico that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a team led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and other top energy advisers on Trump’s team “are getting screamed at to find some good news” regarding bringing down gas prices. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of more expensive gas in the immediate future, the executive added.

The U.S-Israel joint attack on Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliation on energy facilities across the Middle East has caused crude oil prices to rise by over $10 per barrel, causing pump prices to hit their highest peak since Trump’s inauguration.

Gas was already extremely expensive, even as Trump claimed the opposite. Earlier this week, the president dismissed the entire notion of the spike, stating that “if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, lower than even before.”

“Trump’s war in Iran (which is ‘not a war’) throws affordability out the window. Oil prices spiked this week to the highest since … the last time Trump bombed Iran,” political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote Wednesday on X, referring to another massive spike in oil prices in June 2025. “He knows exactly what he’s doing to you and he doesn’t care.”

But now it seems that the Trump administration is moving more urgently to bring the prices down, even offering the military to protect oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran stated that it’d be bombing any that passed through. And that still may not be enough. Only time will tell how long Americans will put up with Trump losing them money at the gas pump.

President Donald Trump’s illegal and expensive war in Iran could stretch on until September—just in time to hand Republicans a win for the upcoming midterm elections.

U.S. Central Command requested the Pentagon dispatch more military intelligence officers to its Florida headquarters in order to support operations in Iran for at least 100 days, but likely until September, Politico reported Wednesday.

Trump had previously indicated that he hoped the conflict would last only four weeks—but clearly the military is operating on a more expansive timeline, as continued strikes from the U.S. and Israel spiral out into a larger regional conflict with a climbing death toll.

Trump’s military campaign in Iran reportedly cost taxpayers more than $5 billion within the first three days alone. Representative Joe Morelle, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, has warned the war could cost up to $1 billion per day. Therefore, U.S. Central Command is currently planning for a war that could cost between $100 billion and $180 billion, or more.

The timing of Trump’s war may also read as convenient for Republicans who must gird themselves for a tough battle in the midterm elections. Ahead of November, Democrats have continued to gain momentum, and Trump’s approval rating has hit a second-term low, signaling what could be a disaster for the president’s party.

While Trump seems to have plans in the works to influence, interfere with, or even cancel the midterm elections, perhaps he hopes to hand Republicans a victory ahead of what is shaping up to be a bloodbath for their majorities in the House and Senate.

That could just as easily backfire.

Americans don’t typically love when the government spends billions of dollars on something they didn’t vote for. And win or lose, Republicans can’t really take credit for Trump’s military campaign in Iran because they have nothing to do with it. Trump seemingly declared war without congressional authorization—just one reason why his actions are blatantly illegal.

President Trump may be fed up with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Punchbowl News reports that the president is asking his Republican allies in Congress whether he should fire Noem, following her contentious hearings on Capitol Hill this week, including one where she said the president approved a controversial government ad campaign starring herself.

On Tuesday, Noem was asked by Republican Senator John Kennedy about the $220 million ad campaign, which he said seemed to boost her national profile.

“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Kennedy asked Noem during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. She replied yes, and said that it was legally cleared.

“Did the president know you were gonna do this?” Kennedy followed up. Noem replied yes, and affirmed her answer when Kennedy seemed skeptical.

“They were effective in your name recognition,” Kennedy said. “To me it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”

This reportedly irked the president enough to question Noem’s future in the administration. The contract for the campaign, which was filmed at Mount Rushmore, went to a company only eight days old and run by Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Yoho’s firm received over $226,000, despite the company having no website, no experience, and quiet contracts.

On top of that, during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Wednesday, Noem was confronted about her rumored affair with her top aide, Corey Lewandowski, and she lashed out at Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove over it.

“I’m shocked we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this hearing,” Noem said, without denying the rumors.

The affair between Noem and Lewandowski, who are married to other people, is considered the worst-kept secret in Washington, D.C. But if Trump decides that Noem’s many misdeeds at DHS (and personal slights to him) have become too much to deal with, the affair will be the least of her problems.

The firefighter and Marine veteran who was dragged out of a Wednesday Senate war powers resolution vote for yelling, “No one wants to fight for Israel” is now facing criminal charges.

Brian McGinnis, in full uniform, can be seen on video being grabbed by Republican Senator Tim Sheehy and three police officers. They lift him up in the doorway while he screams his protest, with his hand still in the doorway. Then a snap can be heard, as McGinnis’s arm breaks.

They eventually put McGinnis down.

“The senator broke his hand! A sitting U.S. senator just broke the hand of a Marine! Control your Senate!” a bystander can be heard yelling.

McGinnis later confirmed his arm was broken. Now, even with his injuries, he has been criminally charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. The GoFundMe in his name has already raised $48,000. McGinnis is also apparently a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina.

“Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing. He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation,” Sheehy later wrote on X. “This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one. I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.” In no way did Sheehy de-escalate the situation when he ran over and grabbed onto McGinnis.

Many were quick to call out the symbolic irony of the event. The current war on Iran, which the U.S. even admitted was at the behest of Israel at least somewhat, is massively unpopular. A veteran making that statement in the halls of the Senate and being seriously injured for it only underscores the administration’s blind commitment to waging war.

“Republicans claim to care about our troops, but the moment a veteran speaks out against Israel they treat him worse than they treat actual criminals,” a large conservative X account wrote.

“This is very, very ugly. And no US Senator needs to inject himself into this situation, for the safety of everyone—including himself,” Independent Veterans for America founder Paul Rieckhoff wrote. “Just unnecessary and terrible to watch. This is what an America falling apart looks like.”

Even the contemptible alt-right commentator Nick Fuentes chimed in.

“This is just a picture of America right now. Which you have a U.S. Marine—these are the people actually prosecuting the war, actually fighting the war … and they’re being sent out now into yet another ridiculous regime change war in the Middle East for Israel. And that’s what the guy says, he says ‘look, we don’t wanna die for Israel,” Fuentes said. “And look at the way that he’s being treated. Literally dragged out of the chamber by the cops, a U.S. Senator jumps into action … they smash his hand in the door. That’s the picture of America. That marine is all of us.”