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President Donald Trump argued that whether he carried out strikes against Iran wouldn’t have mattered to congressional Democrats — they would have criticized him either way.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus immediately ramped up criticism of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury when the Senate returned Monday, and the administration has not yet signaled a clear exit strategy.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said Democrats would have criticized any decision he made.
President Donald Trump argued that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats would have criticized him for any decision he made on striking Iran. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/AP; Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
“If I didn’t do this, guys like Schumer who — losers, the Democrats, losers … guys like Schumer would say, ‘Well, you should have done this,’” Trump said. “In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this.”
Democrats are furious that Trump did not seek approval from Congress to carry out the strikes and are pushing a war powers resolution vote this week to handcuff further use of the military in Iran.
“Donald Trump has just launched America into a full-scale conflict against one of our most fervent adversaries,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Without a plan, without an endgame, and without authorization from Congress — or even a debate in full view of the American people.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 28, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The administration argued after a closed-door classified briefing with congressional leaders and high-ranking lawmakers that the strikes were carried out as a preemptive measure.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after the briefing, “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,” Rubio said. “And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is pushing a vote to rein in Trump’s war authorities. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
But Democrats largely aren’t buying the administration’s argument. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, contended that there wasn’t an imminent threat to the U.S. from Iran.
“It was a threat to Israel,” Warner said.
Senate Democrats plan to plow ahead with a war powers vote, likely Wednesday, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and backed by Schumer. Whether they can splinter off enough Republican support, as Kaine did earlier this year with his Venezuela war powers resolution, remains to be seen.
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Senators are set to receive a briefing from the administration on the strikes on Tuesday, which could determine the fate of the push to rein in Trump’s war authorities.
Trump argued that because Iran was “a purveyor of terror all over the world,” Operation Epic Fury was inevitable.
“It’s something that had to be done,” Trump said.
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