For the first time since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, the House of Representatives has voted to rein in President Donald Trump’s waging of an undeclared war. After months of attempts, a war powers resolution finally passed 215-208 on Wednesday, with four Republicans breaking from their party to join all Democrats in support.
The vote is a moment the anti-war movement has been pushing toward for months, but the road to ending this war launched by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains long.
The vote marks a drastic shift from more than a dozen previous war powers resolution votes in both chambers, as Democrats had lacked support from enough Republican members to put a legislative check on the Trump administration’s military operation in Iran. This time was different.
The four Republicans who crossed the aisle—Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Tom Barrett (Mich.), and Warren Davidson (Ohio)—did so against the explicit wishes of their leadership. House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent the vote from happening at all, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution appeared on the verge of approval. The maneuver failed.
But Congress is behind the curve, compared to the U.S. people. The latest survey, of 1,604 registered voters from May 29-June 1 by YouGov, shows Trump’s Iran war losing by a 28%-60% margin. Nationwide opposition to the war has grown as it drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a resolution.
Even Republicans are starting to feel the pressure from constituents who are upset over rising prices, especially at the gas pump, and question why Iran was attacked in the first place. When the roll call of the final vote came, cheers erupted in the House chamber.
“The People’s House is sending a message: end this war,” Massie wrote following the resolution’s passage. Massie has been among the most vocal Republican critics of the Trump administration’s handling of the war and paid a political price for it—he was beaten by a Trump-backed challenger in Kentucky’s Republican primary.
Democrats were equally forceful. “Enough is enough,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who led the effort. “It is time for the president to do the right thing. The people are tired of suffering because of his war of choice — suffering at the gas pump, suffering at the supermarkets.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut was equally direct. In a statement after the vote, she called the conflict a “reckless war” that “has driven up costs for Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck” and “isolated our country on the global stage.”
The anti-war group CODEPINK hailed the vote, pointing out that it represents precisely the kind of congressional pushback it, along with allied coalitions, have been demanding. “People power works,” the organization said immediately after the vote.
“The House just passed a War Powers Resolution opposing Trump’s unauthorized war with Iran,” which it characterized as “a major rebuke to another endless war fought without congressional approval.”
CODEPINK said the House anti-war win was no accident. “It happened because people across the country called, organized, met with lawmakers, and demanded accountability. Now, it’s time for the Senate to act. Let’s keep the pressure on and send this resolution to Trump’s desk. No more illegal wars. No more blank checks for militarism.”
The path ahead for the resolution will not be smooth-sailing, though. It now heads to a Senate that has so far failed repeatedly to pass a similar measure.
There is also procedural disagreement among scholars and lawmakers about whether the resolution would carry the force of law. Democrats argue that as a “concurrent resolution,” it is binding if both chambers adopt it, even without a presidential signature, while the Trump administration has questioned the constitutionality of the War Powers Act itself.
A 1983 Supreme Court precedent says that such resolutions are only legally binding if they follow the same process as other pieces of legislation that become law—passage by Congress, signature by the president. If he vetos it, then Congress must override him with a two-thirds supermajority.
A veto remains certain even if the measure ever does reach Trump’s desk, and neither chamber is close to having a veto-proof majority. “This will not reach the president’s desk for signature,” an unnamed White House official told the Military Daily News, an armed forces-oriented outlet.
The war powers resolution was not the only war-linked measure taken up by Congress Wednesday. Six Republicans joined Democrats to advance a measure to provide more military aid to Ukraine, setting up a vote on the Ukraine Support Act—another rebuke of GOP leadership, though on a separate front.
The Ukraine aid proposal was put forward by the same Democrat, Meeks of New York, but it did not enjoy the backing of anti-war forces, since it aims to fund the prolongation rather than the conclusion of the deadly conflict in eastern Europe. It would authorize $8 billion in U.S. military financing loans to Ukraine, which it can use to buy U.S. or NATO-supplied weapons for its war with Russia.
As for the Iran war powers vote, it is a step forward but not a finish line. More than 3,400 people have died in Iran since the conflict began, and at least 13 U.S. soldiers have been killed. The anti-war movement says its task now is to press the Senate, keep building public pressure, hold every member of Congress accountable, and support peace voices in the November midterms.
Wednesday’s vote shows, however, shows that public pressure can move even the most party-disciplined chamber in Washington. The cracks are showing in Republican ranks, and peace forces see an opening proving their efforts are having an effect.
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