{"id":214237,"date":"2026-06-18T11:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/republicans-in-washington-on-edge-over-iran-deal-as-trump-touts-its-merits-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:08:20","slug":"republicans-in-washington-on-edge-over-iran-deal-as-trump-touts-its-merits-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/republicans-in-washington-on-edge-over-iran-deal-as-trump-touts-its-merits-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans in Washington on edge over Iran deal as Trump touts its merits – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morning Rundown: What\u2019s in the U.S.-Iran plan, Hegseth calls NATO allies \u2018shameful,\u2019 and why Chinese fans are supporting a World Cup referee<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump is framing a tentative peace deal with Iran as a victory for the U.S., but fractures in the Republican Party suggest that could be a hard sell both on Capitol Hill and in the run-up to November\u2019s midterm elections.
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\u201cIt\u2019s a very strong deal,\u201d Trump said at the G7 summit in France on Wednesday, seated across from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. \u201cNobody knows what it is, but it\u2019s very strong.\u201d
The early response from Republican leaders and the conservative commentariat is mixed at best, in part because not everyone has had a chance yet to digest the memorandum of understanding<\/a> (MOU) between the two countries.
Most Republicans agree that the administration \u201chas taken steps\u201d to diminish Iran as \u201can existential threat,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday before the White House released the bullet points. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that when we get more information about the memorandum of understanding, we\u2019ll have a better sense about what the path forward is.\u201d
With Trump under pressure from Republicans wary of forever wars and those worried about inflation ahead of the midterm elections, the short-term gain for consumers and candidates is the MOU, which promises a tentative end to hostilities and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Administration officials believe that will bring down prices for gas and other goods as freighters flow freely again through a major conduit in the global supply chain.
But cutting a preliminary deal to immediately reopen a seaway that was clear when the U.S. launched the war in late February \u2014 without ensuring enriched uranium is removed, effecting regime change or continuing to squeeze Tehran\u2019s economy \u2014 is a \u201clow-grade humiliation\u201d for the president, a person close to the White House said. Most of the remaining items have been punted to follow-on negotiations that are expected to take place after the memorandum is finalized this weekend.
\u201cIt\u2019s an embarrassing way to get out of this, but I think everyone just wants to get out of it,\u201d this person said.
The White House defended the agreement in a statement, saying it strengthens U.S. interests and national security and will help drive down energy costs.
\u201cFollowing the historic destruction of Iran\u2019s military capabilities through the successful Operation Epic Fury, President Trump and his negotiating team have brokered an excellent MOU that advances the interests of the United States by ending the fighting, reopening the Strait of Hormuz to significantly lower energy prices, and forcing Iran to commit to abandon its nuclear ambitions,\u201d White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said. \u201cWhat the President has achieved on the battlefield and at the negotiating table is nothing short of remarkable and will strengthen American security for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more comprehensive pact remains as elusive as it is politically fraught for the president. As much as voters want the U.S. out of Iran \u2014 and polls consistently show<\/a> that they do \u2014 the price of getting Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions is giving the regime access to money. That\u2019s a cost that many of the president\u2019s supporters don\u2019t want to bear, and it\u2019s one that GOP candidates may have to wrestle with if a final agreement is ever reached.
\u201cIf this is true, Iran wins,\u201d Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Trump\u2019s first term, wrote on X on Tuesday<\/a> after The Wall Street Journal reported that sanctions on Iranian oil would be lifted immediately<\/a> as part of the MOU. \u201cThere should be zero sanctions relief day one.\u201d
The memorandum released by the White House includes an agreement by the U.S. to waive sanctions on Iranian oil, which a senior administration official said Wednesday would end an effective subsidy for China to buy oil from Iran.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, whose views generally differ from Haley\u2019s, also criticized the economic sanctions reversal on his \u201cWar Room\u201d podcast on Tuesday.
\u201cKeep the sanctions, because if we lose that, it will take forever to get back,\u201d he said, adding that the president should not unfreeze billions of dollars in captured Iranian assets as the memorandum envisions. \u201cJust walk away, but keep their money.\u201d
Those concerns come as even top Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are just learning about the details of the pact. Still, GOP lawmakers are divided over whether now is the time to end the war, according to Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
\u201cI think you have a couple of camps,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cYou have the camp that wants us to lose. And then you have the camp that wants a forever war. And President Trump is not in either one of those camps. And neither am I.\u201d
Presidents are typically reluctant to be the face of policies that split their base, and Trump is no different. That means the job of selling the plan to the public may eventually fall more fully on Vice President JD Vance, who was the lead negotiator for the U.S., and Trump\u2019s most stalwart supporters in Congress. The announcement of a deal coincided with the launch of a Vance media tour to promote his new book, making him a more frequent TV presence than usual.
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting to observe as all of the people who pushed hardest for the war and celebrated the president\u2019s sublime judgment are now going to hate the deal,\u201d one person close to the administration said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to turn on Vance because he\u2019s a useful proxy because they don\u2019t want to turn on the president.\u201d
Among Trump\u2019s top advisers, Vance was the most hesitant about the launch of the war at the end of February, but the president designated him to help bring an end to it, along with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law. So far, that has yielded the MOU.
A senior administration official said Trump, who has been meeting with world leaders this week at a G7 summit in Geneva, will be fully engaged in pitching the MOU to the American people.
\u201cThe alternative would be a worldwide depression,\u201d Trump said in Geneva, citing the economic devastation wrought by Tehran\u2019s closure of the strait, which was precipitated by U.S. military strikes on Iran and followed by an American naval blockade that prevented Iran from using the waterway while blocking access to others.
Some in Trump\u2019s orbit are optimistic that the reviews will improve once the full impact is felt.
\u201cPeople are understandably focused on the immediate provisions of the deal, but the president\u2019s approach is centered on the long-term strategic position of the U.S.,\u201d one person familiar with the administration\u2019s perspective said. \u201cThe broader objective is to strengthen American influence, reinforce critical defense and technology partnerships, maintain U.S. leadership against competitors such as China and Russia, and create durable advantages that may not always be apparent in the initial public debate.\u201d
Several Republican aides who spoke with NBC News said early reporting of its contents exacerbated tensions within the caucus between those who want to wrap the war as soon as possible to mitigate the political impacts at home and those committed to seeing the conflict advance their long-standing foreign policy aims.
The final text lined up closely with earlier versions that circulated through capitals around the globe in recent days.
\u201cObviously everybody wants this to be over,\u201d one aide to a Senate Republican said, adding that the White House has asked senators for backup in defending the new agreement. \u201cGas prices are way too high. This is a politically toxic issue.\u201d
However, this person said they were concerned that the deal would be too similar to the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that Republicans pilloried for years. Trump withdrew from the JCPOA during his first term and has sought to push back on the idea that the agreements are similar.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who speaks frequently with the president and is among his most consistent defenders on Capitol Hill, gave his blessing to the first phase of a deal with the caveat that he is not convinced that Iran will ultimately give up its nuclear weapons program and its funding of proxy militias.
\u201cWe\u2019re off to a good start \u2014 opening up the strait, having a framework,\u201d Graham told NBC News. \u201cIf we can pull this off as described by the Trump administration, it\u2019d be a good deal. The only question I have is, will Iran actually go there? But time will tell.\u201d
Asked how the deal is different from the JCPOA, Graham said it would be different if Iran had zero nuclear enrichment and got fully \u201cout of the enrichment business for 15 years.\u201d The original deal had a 10-year timeline and capped enrichment at 3.67%, far below the level needed for nuclear weapons.
But others are giving more full-throated endorsements.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, called the MOU \u201creally monumental\u201d and said the president would get the benefit of the doubt from the Senate Republican Conference.
\u201cHe\u2019s the leader of our party. We have to give him the grace and the space to do what he needs to do,\u201d Moreno said in an interview. \u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal negotiator, better than anybody here in the Senate, times 100, and he\u2019s doing what needs to be done. \u2026 With extraordinarily few exceptions, he\u2019s got the full backing and support of the conference.\u201d
He cited the fact that the JCPOA did not bear physical signatures as one key difference between that pact and Trump\u2019s memorandum. The Obama-era deal, agreed to by the U.S., Iran, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom, allowed for international weapons inspections in Iran, released frozen assets to Tehran and eased sanctions. It held until Trump unilaterally ended U.S. participation in 2018.
\u201cOh, my God, the world\u2019s in a better position,\u201d Moreno said of whether the war has benefited the U.S., adding his belief that further economic pain would have been inflicted had Iran obtained a nuclear weapon. \u201cI mean we would be in a place that we can\u2019t even imagine. President Trump prevented that. \u2026 Voters count on us to avoid problems, not just solve them.\u201d
Moreno, like Schmitt, is not on the ballot in 2026. Republican House and Senate candidates in competitive races will have to decide whether they want to run on the war and the deal, run away from them or simply put them on the back burner.
Tudor Dixon, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in Michigan in 2022 and the head of the political action committee United We Fund, said Republican candidates will take their cues from the president on the agreement.
\u201cI don\u2019t see a reason to shy away from it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey trust his position.\u201d
Lawmakers are going to want to know as much as they can about the details, and \u201cit would really behoove the administration to engage with Congress,\u201d said Mark Bednar, a Republican strategist who served as a top aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Bednar said most candidates won\u2019t emphasize the deal on the campaign trail because it\u2019s \u201calmost a Catch-22.\u201d
\u201cThe more successful the Iran deal is, the less salient it will be in voters\u2019 minds on a day-to-day basis,\u201d he said. Instead, they may include it in their pitches as one example of \u201csmart, sober, competent governance\u201d by Republicans.
Jonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News.
Katherine Doyle is a White House reporter for NBC News.
Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.
Henry J. Gomez is a senior national political reporter for NBC News
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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Morning Rundown: What\u2019s in the U.S.-Iran plan, Hegseth calls NATO allies \u2018shameful,\u2019 and why Chinese fans are supporting a World Cup referee news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump is framing a tentative peace deal with Iran as a victory for the U.S., but fractures in the Republican Party suggest that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}