WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, shortly before his administration asked Congress for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the conflict.
Several Republicans in the closed-door meeting said Trump engaged in a shouting match with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who said the administration needed to explain a framework deal Trump signed last week that provides financial incentives for Iran but does not accomplish any of the goals he laid out at the war’s beginning.
“The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy told reporters. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.” The high-volume exchange with a member of Trump’s own party was another example of how the war has weighed on Trump ahead of November elections that will determine control of Congress.
Just one in four Americans believes the war was worth its costs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found, and Trump’s approval rating is at its lowest level since he returned to office last year.
The exchange came one day after the Senate voted to direct Trump to end the war in a largely symbolic rebuke.
Cassidy was one of four Republicans to back the resolution, along with opposition Democrats.
