Republicans risk undercutting their midterm affordability messaging as President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda overshadows domestic politics and voters face broader economic warning signs.
The GOP-controlled Congress is floating more money for Trump’s Iran war, a move that could alienate voters’ cost-of-living concerns ahead of the November elections in the face of rising prices at the pump from Trump’s Middle East military operations, which a majority of Americans disapprove of, and on the heels of a dismal February economic report with 92,000 jobs lost.
“There’s a lot of things that run the risk of undermining affordability, and I would say this is a piece of that puzzle,” Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) told the Washington Examiner.
Democrats are eager to leverage what the president has foreshown could be a drawn-out conflict, with the party already seizing on anti-war fervor to ding Trump on Iran.
“How is he paying for this war? By cutting people’s healthcare,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), citing Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax law last year that slashed Medicaid and other healthcare funding with fewer subsidies and eligibility while boosting defense by $150 billion. “That’s a loser of an argument.”
The White House has made no official spending ask of Congress but is reportedly weighing a multibillion-dollar emergency request to replenish munitions stockpiles. And Democrats face their own brewing divisions over giving Trump more money to wage a war he started without the approval of lawmakers, as some acknowledge “we’re in it” and may require more funding to protect troops and bolster national security.
Cost estimates vary, with Democrats saying the war is costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion per day, while Republicans consider the figure inflated. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the first 100 hours cost an average of $891.4 million per day, but predicted that costs would decline as the conflict progressed.
“I hope that the war will not dissuade Congress from acting to bring down the cost of living and bring up wages,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), citing issues such as lowering prescription drug prices, banning institutional investors from buying residential homes, and raising the minimum wage.
“We shouldn’t just sit around and watch,” he added with a laugh. “Congress should do something.”
Trump and Republican leaders are downplaying long-term economic fallout from the war. They’re particularly hopeful that higher gasoline prices, one of the biggest daily economic indicators for Americans, will be short-lived, as they’ve been driven by regional oil transportation restrictions that have affected global market prices. The ripple effects of energy prices mean higher supply chain costs that get passed to consumers through a variety of goods, including groceries.
“I think that there will be — hopefully — a cessation of this in the not-too-distant future, at which time, my assumption is that that’ll stabilize a bit,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters. “I think anytime there’s any kind of anything that happens in the Middle East seems to set off an increase in oil prices.”
Trump, who touted gas prices at his State of the Union address last month, insisted to CNN Friday that “it’ll be short-term. It’ll go way down very quickly.”
DEMOCRATIC DIVISIONS BREW OVER FUNDING TRUMP’S IRAN WAR: ‘GOING TO BE A NEED’
Despite reporting that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence on U.S. military targets in the Middle East, the Trump administration that same day temporarily dialed back Russian sanctions to allow India to purchase Russian oil in a bid to blunt oil prices from further rising.
“This stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, adding that it will not “provide significant financial benefit” to the Russian government because a 30-day U.S. waiver “only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea.”
