On Saturday, the United States and Israel repeatedly struck the Islamic Republic of Iran, killing the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and causing a series of retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.
Before the strikes, the U.S. and Iran were conducting negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. The foreign minister of Oman, Badr al-Busaidi, who was acting as an intermediary for the negotiations, had described significant progress in that process during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that aired on Friday.
During the 2024 election season, the Trump campaign team repeatedly pushed an isolationist message, with Trump even promising he was “not going to start a war” in his election night victory speech. Since his inauguration last year, the administration has begun cutting ties with various international organizations, but has also overseen military operations in the Caribbean, Venezuela and now Iran.
In an eight-minute video announcing the attacks, President Donald Trump relayed that “the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship [Iran] from threatening America and our core national security interests.” He acknowledged that U.S. soldiers could be killed and urged the Iranian people to “take over your government.”
U.S. Central Command announced Sunday that three American service members have already been killed in action, and more were injured. In another video posted to social media, Trump acknowledged the three individuals’ deaths and that “there likely will be more.” During interviews with the press, he has maintained that the war may take “four to five weeks.”
Both of Alabama’s senators, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, quickly issued statements praising Trump’s decision. Tuberville and Britt had also praised the administration’s earlier strikes on Iran in June 2025.
“President Trump has shown time and time again, you NEVER threaten America,” Tuberville wrote in a social media post shortly after Saturday’s attacks.
In a similar post calling Iran the “world’s leading sponsor of terrorism,” Britt called the decision to attack Iran again “a defining moment of generational leadership from President Trump to achieve sustainable peace.”
Britt has also continued to post in favor of the war, celebrating Khamenei’s death and attacking Congressional Democrats for blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security. In one post, she claimed that “due to the previous Administration’s open border policies, Iran’s terror proxy groups pose a serious threat to our homeland.”
Congressional Democrats and select Republicans have called Trump’s unilateral decision to strike Iran and begin a new war in the Middle East unconstitutional. The Constitution grants Congress the right to declare war, but the president has largely been given more and more latitude in the execution of foreign policy since the close of World War II.
Before Saturday’s strikes, Representatives Ro Khanna, D-California, and Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, were pushing for Congress to vote on a war powers resolution that would limit the administration’s ability to use military force in Iran. The effort was expected to attract a handful of votes from other Republican representatives as well.
Alabama’s Democratic members of Congress, Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures, both called to move the war powers resolution further along this weekend.
“Iran has oppressed their people and supported terrorism in the region for decades,” Sewell stated in a press release. “This fact does not change the President’s obligations under the Constitution to work with Congress on military actions that put our troops in harm’s way and could drag our country into another prolonged war in the Middle East.”
Figures, in his official statement, said that “using our military to seek a regime change is war. Period.” He added that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, should call the House back to D.C. so they can consider Khanna and Massie’s resolution.
