Republican Representative Thomas Massie and senior Democrats used Friday’s milestone to challenge a war that began on February 28 with coordinated US and Israeli strikes. Massie said the conflict had exceeded the time limits he argues are imposed by the War Powers Act and called for it to end. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also criticised the continuing campaign, with Jeffries saying the war should be stopped.
Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said the administration had launched the conflict without sufficient public or congressional backing and pledged to pursue efforts to cut funding. Representative Jason Crow, an Army veteran on the House Armed Services Committee, also called for an end to the fighting, citing casualties, spending and higher household costs.
The appeals came as Trump focused largely elsewhere. He spent Friday in Houston for US space programme events and separately announced an oil agreement involving Venezuela. The White House made no public observance of the war’s six-month milestone.
Trump had predicted at the outset that the campaign would last four to five weeks. His language has shifted repeatedly since then, moving from assertions that the United States had won and that a deal was close to statements this week that he was “not in a hurry” to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table.
“They’re not paying their troops. They’re in deep trouble. They have very little capacity,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. He added that Washington was not seeking talks or a meeting with Iranian leaders.
The administration is now placing greater weight on sanctions and financial pressure under a campaign it calls Operation Economic Outcast. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned governments, banks and companies against maintaining economic links with Tehran. On Friday, the Treasury Department took steps against Banque Misr’s operations in the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Egyptian bank of providing an economic lifeline to Iran’s leadership, and announced sanctions targeting an Iranian bank official and a Hong Kong company.
The military phase has nevertheless left substantial costs. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers in July that US spending on the war had reached $37.5 billion. Eighteen US service members have been killed and more than 750 wounded during the conflict, according to Pentagon figures cited by lawmakers and military-family groups.
The United States and Israel say their strikes severely degraded Iran’s missile, drone, naval and nuclear-related capabilities. Iran has not surrendered, however, and the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains a central point of contention. Trump said on Thursday that the waterway was open and that 24 vessels had passed through the previous day, far below the roughly 130 ships that used the strait daily before the war.
Commercial traffic remains constrained because many shipowners continue to regard the passage as hazardous. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard disputes Washington’s assertion that normal access has been restored and maintains that shipping cannot proceed freely without Iranian approval.
Diplomatic efforts have also stalled. Qatar and Pakistan have continued efforts to create an opening for talks, while Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani visited Tehran on Thursday to discuss proposals involving traffic through Hormuz. A preliminary understanding reached in June was intended to reopen the strait and begin talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, but it collapsed within weeks.
Political pressure on Trump is sharpened by earlier congressional action. Both chambers approved war powers measures in June directing the president to withdraw US forces from hostilities with Iran without specific congressional authorisation. The administration has disputed arguments that its military operations violate congressional war powers.
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