Democrats say Trump hasn’t learned lessons of history, has no strategic endgame with Iran strikes

Democrats reacting to U.S. strikes early Saturday morning on Iran criticized President Trump, saying he has failed to learn from multiple failed U.S. interventions in the Middle East and accusing the president of sidestepping Congress in launching the attacks.

Sen.  Mark Warner  (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned the need for the attack in his statement, and warned the U.S. could be repeating “mistakes of the past” in a nod to the Iraq War launched by former President George W. Bush.

“The American people have seen this playbook before – claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change and prolonged, costly nation-building,” Warner wrote.

“We owe it to our service members, and to every American family, to ensure that we are not repeating the mistakes of the past. The president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?”

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee also said the president had failed to learn “the lessons of history.”

“Everything I have heard from the Administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,” Himes said in a statement.

“Military action in this region almost never ends well for the United States, and conflict with Iran can easily spiral and escalate in ways we cannot anticipate. It does not appear that Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history.”

Trump, in  a video posted to Truth Social  overnight, said the U.S. was “going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground” and also called for regime change in Iran.

But Democratic critics called those goals unrealistic.

“The goals laid out by President Trump — ending Iran’s destabilizing nuclear weapons program, dismantling its missile arsenal, crushing its proxy network, and regime change — are not the objectives of a limited strike,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“They are the objectives of a prolonged war. Military force can degrade Iran’s capabilities, but without a defined end state and real diplomacy, these objectives invite escalation.”

Several Democrats also faulted Trump for failing to account for his own actions that set the stage for the growth of Iran’s nuclear program as well as inconsistencies in his statements about the both risks of its nuclear capabilities and U.S. success in thwarting them.

Sen Tim Kaine (D-Va.), one of the sponsors of a war powers resolution, noted it was Trump who in 2018 withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) initially signed in 2015, a deal that was effectively blocking Iran’s pathway to building a bomb.

“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East? Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?” Kaine said .

Trump last June launched strikes on Iran, with the president at the time asserting the U.S. had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.

That claim generated much pushback, with skeptics arguing Iran wasn’t on the brink of developing a weapon, while additional intelligence showed the strikes landed in other Iranian facilities set their nuclear development back only by a few months.

Others argued Trump simply didn’t have the military background to understand the commitment he was making of U.S. troops.

“I went to war three times for this country and learned that when elites in Washington bang the war drums, working class folks pay the price. The tough talk of a five-time draft dodger falls flat for Americans tired of military adventurism. Americans want us out of the regime change business,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a former Army Ranger who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Trump is plunging us into another war in the Middle East. He’s learned nothing from decades of failed conflicts. It’s a war of choice with no clear end game, no authorization from Congress, and little support from Americans.”

Several Democrats raised constitutional issues with the strikes, stressing that the president must come to lawmakers to authorize war.

“Congress must be fully briefed, and the administration must come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war,” Warner wrote.

“Iran’s leadership has long supported terrorism across the region, undermined regional stability, continued to advance its nuclear ambitions, and brutally repressed its own people,” Warner said. “But acknowledging those realities does not relieve any president of the responsibility to act within the law, with a clear strategy, and with Congress.

Sen.  Ed Markey  (D-Mass.) called the U.S. attack “illegal and unconstitutional” because it was not approved by Congress.

“Trump’s illegal actions raise the threat of escalation into a wider regional war with grave risks for U.S. troops and civilians in the region,” he wrote in a statement that also called for an immediate vote on a war powers resolution that has been introduced by Kaine and  Adam Schiff  (D-Calif.).

“A diplomatic solution remains the best way to permanently and verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Markey stated. “This is a crisis of Trump’s creation. Americans do not want another endless war in the Middle East.”

Sen.  Ruben Gallego  (D-Ariz.), a former Marine who served in Iraq, said in a statement posted on X also warned of the possibility the U.S. could be drawn into a bigger war.

“The Iranian people deserve freedom and dignity. But we cannot send our men and women to die at the whim of the President,” he wrote. “The regime’s actions shouldn’t become an excuse for a wider war that punishes civilians and puts our troops at risk.”

Trump has been seeing support for his actions from a number of Republican lawmakers, however, and at least one Democrat.

Sen.  John Fetterman  (D-Pa.) in a statement offered support for the action.

“Operation Epic Fury. President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region. God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,”  he wrote .

This story was posted at 8:14 a.m. and updated at 11:15 a.m.

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