President Donald Trump pledged during his 2024 campaign that he would be the "candidate of peace," and many Missouri Republicans went along with that, especially the state's congressional delegation.
But now that Trump has plunged the country into a war with Iran, a Washington University political science professor is noting that the reality of the GOP chief executive's foreign policy decisions is significantly different from his campaign rhetoric.
"There's definitely a bit of doublespeak going on here where, on the one hand, you have a president who's talked a lot about the need to return to prioritizing America rather than getting involved in foreign wars – who is now deciding to launch a foreign war," said professor Carly Wayne. "But I think in another sense, this is sort of consistent with his approach to how he interacts with the world, which is that he prefers unilateral action."
During an appearance on "The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air," Wayne said she wasn't surprised to see Republicans largely supporting Trump's decision to attack Iran over the weekend and Democrats largely opposing his actions.
Wayne said it reflects the realities of American politics.
"This is sort of a continuation of extreme partisan polarization in Congress," Wayne said. "The Republicans have sort of predictably gone along with Trump's plans, even though they are in some ways a profound shift in his rhetoric. And Democrats have sort of uniformly opposed this escalation in Iran."
Both of Missouri's senators, U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, opposed a War Powers Act resolution restricting Trump's ability to attack Iran. Both of the Republicans have expressed public wariness to military interventionism, especially when it came to President Joe Biden providing weapons to Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion.
Wayne said she "would not be surprised if privately, behind closed doors, a lot of Republicans are expressing dismay at this new war."
"I think many of them are probably worried about how this is going to play out for them electorally especially if the war drags on, which it very, very well might," Wayne said. "So, I think they're trying to thread the needle here. They're showing support for Trump in sort of the least way they can to avoid angering the MAGA base."
One example Wayne pointed out is how Hawley opposed the War Powers resolution last week but added that his views could change if Trump asked Congress to deploy ground troops.
Democrats navigate tricky divides
Almost every Democratic member of Congress voted for the War Powers resolution last week, including members of the Missouri and Illinois delegations.
"All Democrats have come out against this war," Wayne said. "They've done so largely on procedural grounds. And I think that is itself sort of strategic. Every Democratic statement that I've seen has been very clear to start the statement off by talking about how horrible of a regime Iran is and all of the things they don't like about Iran. And then they just go on to say that they oppose doing this without congressional approval and that they oppose doing this without a plan."
While the War Powers resolution wasn't successful, Wayne said the people who voted for it could benefit in the long term. That includes several GOP lawmakers who broke with their party.
"If the Iran war were to turn into sort of quagmire in the same way that Iraq did, where you have U.S. troops on the ground and we're there for years, and there's no winning in sight, you (could) get this sort of popular surge in the United States that's anti-war in the Middle East again," Wayne said. "In that sense, the staunchly isolationist wing of the party could point to that as a rallying flag, so to speak."
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