Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) isn't buying the White House's framing of the Iran war. On Wednesday, Massie shared a clip on X of President Donald Trump discussing the conflict at a campaign event, and he used it to question the legal authority behind the military action.
"When will the war in Iran end? Whenever I want it to end," Massie wrote, paraphrasing Trump's remarks. "So much for the legal fiction that it isn't a war."
Massie then laid out his constitutional argument: "U.S. law and the Constitution prohibit the Executive branch from fighting a war that isn't declared or authorized by Congress."
In the clip, Trump didn't exactly shy away from the characterization. He said the conflict "could be over whenever I wanted to be over."
"Somebody asked me before, when will the war in Iran end? I said, whenever I want it to end," Trump said. He added that the conflict needed to end "properly," with a guarantee that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran remained open to negotiations and was working with intermediaries to accelerate its seven-day plan, but stressed that Iran's conditions needed to be met. He also warned that further Israeli-led military action could disrupt global energy markets.
On Tuesday, Trump said Iran wanted a deal but maintained that Washington controlled when the war would end. He said U.S. strikes had weakened Iran's military and finances, speculated that Tehran might be waiting for the November midterm elections and said "anything's possible" when asked about further strikes.
The price tag is getting hard to ignore. Trump's war against Iran had cost the U.S. military more than $47 billion, exceeding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July estimate by over 25%, according to reported Pentagon data. The military is expected to spend more than $29 billion replacing munitions and another $6 billion replacing lost equipment.
Lawmakers warned about the growing taxpayer burden, while the Congressional Budget Office projected that higher energy prices linked to the conflict would increase inflation.
