Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Urging Senate Republicans To Stand Against Trump’s War Of Choice In The Middle East And Vote With Democrats For A War Powers Resolution

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor slamming President Trump's "Operation Epic Failure" in the Middle East, calling for Senate Republicans to take a stand a vote with Democrats for a War Powers Resolution. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Trump took America to war. He did it without consulting Congress. He did it without an Authorization for the Use of Military Force. He did it without a plan, without a strategy, and without so much as a clear definition about what winning even looks like. That's the war that Trump is putting us into.

Now - forty-four days later - everything is worse. His leadership of the war might as well be called Operation Epic Failure.

The Strait of Hormuz? Chaos. The Iranian regime? Still standing. Gas prices? At the highest levels in years. Iran's nuclear ambitions? Exact same. American credibility in the world? Worse.

This war planning is an epic failure. And it all belongs to Donald Trump.

Just look at what this war has done to the American economy. Energy costs surged in March, led by a more than 20% increase for gasoline - accounting for roughly three-quarters of the entire month's inflation increase. Gas prices remain above $4 a gallon on average nationally, oil is over $100 a barrel. And U.S. inflation is soaring on higher energy costs, far ahead of where it was before this war started. Companies are adding fuel surcharges. Small business owners across this country are being squeezed between rising costs and customers they cannot afford to lose. Now it looks like as long as oil prices keep driving up inflation, interest rates are going to remain higher for longer.

This is the Iran War Tax American families are paying every time they fill up their tank, every time they buy groceries, every time they book a flight. This is one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions the United States has ever taken.

And now let's talk about the Strait of Hormuz - because nothing captures the chaos of this administration's non-strategy better than what happened this weekend. Donald Trump spent weeks demanding Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He threatened to bomb power plants. He threatened to bomb bridges. He issued ultimatum after ultimatum. And then - this Sunday - he announced that the United States Navy would begin blockading the very strait he was demanding remain open. What folly.

But it gets worse.

While all of this was playing out, the Trump administration was quietly allowing Iran to sell its own sanctioned oil on the global market - actively financing the war being waged against us. Trump is giving finances to be used against us in the war he started because they had no other way to keep gas prices from rising even further.

And guess who else gets a hall pass to sell gas and oil?

Another active enemy - Russia and Putin - who are giving battlefield intelligence to Iran to target and kill our troops, and use the billions they get from the Trump oil sanction exemption to finance their war of aggression against our ally, Ukraine.

This is not a strategy. This is not a diplomatic solution. That is not a plan. That is chaos. And it is an epic failure.

Talks with Vice President JD Vance and Iranian officials in Islamabad fell apart in less than a day, with each side blaming the other.

And what has the Republican majority in this chamber chosen to do while this dramatic, dramatic disaster of a war unfolds? Absolutely nothing. They're silent, and their silence is deafening.

There have been no hearings.

There have been no investigations.

There have been no attempts to stand up to Trump.

Well, our service members deserve better than this.

Republicans have had three opportunities to stop this war by passing a War Powers Resolution.

Republicans have fallen in behind President Trump and they own Operation Epic Failure as much as Trump does.

And that's why, again this week, Democrats will force a vote on a War Powers Resolution to stop hostilities in Iran and return the power to go to war back to Congress where it always should be.

Republicans will once again have the chance to do the right thing and vote to end this war.

To my Republican colleagues: history is going to record this moment. It is going to record whether you stood up for the Constitution or whether you handed your power away to a president who threatened to "wipe out an entire civilization" - and then turned around and blockaded the very strait he demanded Iran reopen.

And this chamber is not a spectator.

Congress must do its job and make sure that no president - not this one, not the next one - can drag this country into war alone and without consequence.

It's time to put an end to Operation Epic Failure.

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