Senate Republicans, despite a mounting death toll, surging energy prices and growing uncertainty, batted down another attempt by Democrats to handcuff President Donald Trump in his war with Iran.Democrats pulled the trigger on yet another war powers resolution, the first since Trump resumed strikes in the Middle East, and were again unsuccessful in convincing enough Republicans to force the administration to get authorization from Congress.Thursday’s war powers resolution was forced by Sen.Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who argued that, "the main thing is that we need to continue to hold senators of both parties accountable for ending this senseless war."REPUBLICANS BREAK WITH TRUMP TO REBUKE IRAN WAR — BUT IT WON'T CHANGE POLICYPresident Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 14, 2026.
(SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)"You know, President Trump said that we won the war back in March," Van Hollen said."And the question we've got is: If we won the war in March, how is it that American service members are still being killed and gas prices are going through the roof again?"Van Hollen, and nearly every single Senate Democrat — save for Sen.
John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has routinely voted against war powers resolutions — only managed to carve off one Republican, Sen.Susan Collins, R-Maine, in their pursuit of reining in Trump. Sens.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., who have routinely voted with Democrats on war powers, did not vote.SENATE DEMOCRATS FINALLY CRACK GOP UNITY ON TRUMP'S IRAN WAR AS MURKOWSKI FLIPSWhether the resolution would be successful remained up in the air until moments before the vote.Sen.Bill Cassidy, R-La., who previously acted as the decisive vote to advance a war powers resolution last month, was again the key wild card on Thursday.
But just before the alarm sounded to open the vote in the Senate, Cassidy revealed he would o...