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President Donald Trump’s effort to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran is colliding with growing intraparty friction among Republicans, even as the administration points to a ceasefire as the start of a possible end. In the past month and a half, GOP lawmakers and prominent party voices have struggled to square an exit strategy with the broader political realities of an election year.
Laura Loomer, a conservative activist closely aligned with Trump, pushed back publicly against the idea of brokering a deal with Iran. In an interview, she said she supported Trump but rejected negotiations, arguing, “I just don’t believe in negotiating with Islamic terrorists.” The interview came as the article described talks expected to start Saturday in Pakistan and as Vice President JD Vance took on a larger diplomatic role.
Loomer’s comments also drew direct criticism aimed at Vance’s involvement. The article said Loomer knocked Vance for being “in charge” of the talks, while Vance’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The disputes inside the party widened beyond diplomacy into Trump’s political fate. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, identified in the report as a Trump supporter turned critic, called for Trump to be removed from office through the Constitution’s 25th Amendment after Trump earlier this week warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran made a deal, according to the article.
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News anchor who hosts a podcast, also criticized Trump in remarks tied to the ceasefire’s uncertainty, according to the report. During a recent taping of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Kelly asked, “Can’t he just behave like a normal human?” and the episode also included a question about whether the show or the ceasefire deal would end first.
Despite the visible criticism, the report said Republican leaders in Congress have largely stayed quiet in public. It cited private discomfort among some lawmakers about Trump’s threats on social media and about how the war could play out in an election year, while noting that Congress was on recess for the opening two weeks of April, limiting public reaction.
Among lawmakers who did speak, Rep. Dave Schweikert of Arizona described the political and communications challenge of trying to respond as the war narrative shifts quickly. In an interview, Schweikert said, “How do you go up and give a presentation or speech in a situation where every 12 hours, the baseline story has a new gradient?” and he added that he viewed it as “the sin of arrogance” to believe someone can talk about something while the story is still unfolding.
At the same time, the administration and Trump’s allies have continued to project confidence about the ceasefire. Trump hailed what the report described as a “big day for World Peace” after the ceasefire was announced, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as a “victory for the United States of America that the president and our incredible military made happen.” The report also said Trump dismissed detractors, including podcasters such as Kelly, as “stupid people” who would “say anything necessary for some ‘free’ and cheap publicity.”
Some Republicans have pushed back on the idea that Trump’s foreign-policy focus has come at the expense of domestic priorities. Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee said in an interview that “Part of America First is making sure that the homeland stays safe and Iran is a factor in our safety,” and he added, “We are all hopeful that the ceasefire does hold and that Iran lives up to their side of the agreement.”
The report further linked the party’s internal debate to midterm-election pressures. It said Republicans are managing an environment where approval of Trump’s handling of the presidency stood at about 4 in 10 adults in polling cited by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and it noted comparisons with Trump’s first term as Democrats went on to gain 40 House seats in 2018. It also described public opinion splits among Republicans on military options, including that 63% backed airstrikes against Iranian military targets but only 20% backed deploying American ground troops, alongside concerns about gas prices.
As Congress returns, lawmakers face choices the article described as potentially difficult heading into fall campaigns, including spending requests tied to the war and possible votes that could force more conservative members to weigh tradeoffs. The report said Democrats were preparing to force another vote on a war powers resolution that would curb Trump’s options in Iran and that a similar effort had failed last month. It also said Schweikert described the war powers vote as “the dance of parties,” adding, “Their job is to try to embarrass us and our job as the majority is to try to make things work. It’s just the job.”
For now, Trump and the White House are presenting the ceasefire as a path toward stability, while Republicans are dealing with whether the ceasefire and broader Iran strategy will calm politics at home or intensify divisions inside the party at the exact moment the midterms are coming into view.