Why a Growing Number of Republicans Are Breaking With Trump on Iran

Michigan Republican Senate candidate former Rep.

Mike Rogers (R-MI) speaks on stage on the second day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on September 10, 2026. —Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images Republicans are increasingly breaking from President Donald Trump over the war in Iran .

A growing number of GOP candidates are calling for an end to the nearly seven-month-long war on the campaign trail, even in traditionally red parts of the U.S.

On Capitol Hill, the latest war powers resolution weighed by the House was approved with fresh Republican support.

And recent polls show that as the conflict has stretched on and hit Americans’ wallets , approval of Trump’s handling of the war among Republican voters has dropped by double digits.

The defections come as active hostilities in Iran have resumed in the last month after peace talks between Washington and Tehran stalled over the summer.

Trump, who initially projected that the war would last a matter of weeks, has in recent days publicly floated the possibility that he could “ annihilate the Islamic Republic ” and “ blow the entire nation up .” At the same time, however, he has also recently predicted that the conflict will end after the midterms .

And not long after levying a fresh threat in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, he told reporters at the diplomatic gathering that he had a “very good” meeting with “mediators of Iran.” “It's to their advantage to make a deal, and we can do that,” he said on Tuesday.

Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concern that Trump has not laid out an exit strategy for the conflict and sounded alarm about the impact the war is having on fuel prices , which have spiked around the U.S. since it began.

With GOP fears over the pivotal November elections growing, more candidates and lawmakers in the party are choosing to distance themselves from the President on the issue—and though the defectors remain in the minority, Republican strategists tell TIME that GOP disapproval for the war in Iran will likely only continue to mount.

Here’s why.

Inflation concerns loom large ahead of the midterms A handful of Republican candidates have recently pushed for an end to Iran on the campaign trail as the midterms near, including several in tight Senate races.

“It's all about getting reelected,” Brian Darling, a Republican strategist and former counsel to Sen.

Rand Paul of Kentucky, says about midterm candidates to TIME.