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The Republican wall just cracked. After months of unified support for Operation Epic Fury, three GOP senators broke ranks Wednesday and joined Democrats in a failed attempt to terminate Trump’s war with Iran. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted to end the operation, handing Democrats a moral victory even if they couldn’t secure the legislative one.
Make no mistake, this is a big deal. For two months, Senate Democrats have been throwing war powers resolutions at the wall like spaghetti, hoping something would stick. They’ve been trying to splinter Republican unity through sheer attrition, and finally, it worked. Murkowski’s flip is particularly significant, she’s not some backbencher looking for headlines. She’s a senior member with real influence, and her warning shot earlier this month made clear she was serious about bringing an Authorization for Use of Military Force to the floor if the administration didn’t show progress toward peace.
The timing couldn’t be more telling. Congress blew past the 60-day War Powers Act deadline to weigh in on the fighting. The ceasefire with Iran that the administration was counting on is, in Trump’s own words, on “massive life support” with about a one percent chance of survival. And the President himself just landed in China for high-stakes talks that could reshape the entire geopolitical chessboard.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to thread the needle, arguing the 60-day deadline was moot because fighting was paused under the ceasefire. But when the commander-in-chief is publicly declaring that truce nearly dead, that argument starts to sound like legalistic word games. Americans have a right to know what their sons and daughters are fighting for, and for how long.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune practically begged his colleagues to hang together, noting that Trump’s trip to China would have national security implications and that “it would be best if everybody hung together and supported the president.” That’s the kind of leadership that puts party loyalty above constitutional duty, and it’s exactly why the founders gave Congress the power to declare war in the first place.
The question now is whether this crack in GOP unity becomes a fissure, or whether leadership can paper over the differences before more Republicans decide their conscience matters more than their primary prospects. Murkowski, Collins, and Paul have shown it’s possible to support the President on most issues while still demanding accountability on matters of war and peace.
That’s not weakness. That’s what separated powers looks like.
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