A CNN host couldn’t help but laugh after producers rolled a supercut of MAGA figures delivering a whirlwind of fiery and often conflicting reactions to Donald Trump’s attack on Iran.
Since U.S. and Israeli forces launched what Trump called “major combat operations” against Iran over the weekend, his supporters have been divided in their reactions.
While some have embraced the decision to attack Iran, others, including far-right figures Milo Yiannopoulos, Nick Fuentes, and Andrew Tate, as well as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have criticized the president for deviating from the “America First” and “No new wars” platform he ran on.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers have been divided over whether to call Trump’s actions in Iran a war.
On Monday, CNN ran a supercut of Republican lawmakers discussing the war. That included footage of Trump’s speech announcing the strikes, where he said: “And we may have casualties. That often happens in war.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also referred to the conflict as a war on multiple occasions. “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it,” he said in a speech on Monday.
“We set the terms of this war, from start to finish,” he added. “War is hell, and always will be.”
But Republican lawmakers have been more reluctant to label it as a war after Trump authorised airstrikes without congressional approval.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said during an interview, “I don’t know if this is technically a war,” while Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told CNN, “This isn’t a war. We haven’t declared war.”
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Brian Mast, said, “Nobody should classify this as war. It is combat operations.”
Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna told MS Now, “Strategic strikes are not war.”
The clip prompted a laugh from CNN host Abby Phillip. “The congresspeople that you saw in that clip are all convinced that it’s not a war because that would mean that they would have had to have done their job beforehand to authorise this,” she said. “But it does seem like we’re in a war.”
The initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Saturday claimed the lives of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of Iranian leaders. Hundreds more were killed or injured in other strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, including 165 people, mostly children, who were killed in an explosion at a girls’ school in southern Iran.
Iran responded to the U.S. and Israeli strikes—which Tehran’s foreign minister called “unprovoked” and “illegal”—with a wave of retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, including missile and drone strikes on U.S. bases and neighboring countries hosting American forces, as well as assaults on Israel and Gulf states.
At least six U.S. servicemembers have been killed in those strikes. U.S. Central Command said additional troops suffered minor shrapnel wounds and concussions but are expected to return to duty.
The attack came two days after US-Iranian talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme failed to result in a deal.
Most Democrats swiftly condemned the strikes, arguing that Trump had effectively taken the country to war without authorization from Congress.
Party leaders then revived demands for a new War Powers resolution—similar to legislation that stalled last year after failing to win Republican support—in an effort to reassert Congress’s constitutional authority over military action.
If passed, such a measure could restrict the president’s ability to conduct further unilateral strikes without lawmakers’ approval.
For now, however, the path forward appears narrow. Only a handful of Republicans—including Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul—have signaled openness to backing such an effort, leaving its prospects uncertain.
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