MAGA Rep. Nancy Mace is waving red flags over President Donald Trump’s war with Iran after walking out of a classified briefing on the administration’s strategy.
“Washington’s war machine is hard at work. They are try [sic] to drag us into Iran to make it another Iraq. We can’t let them,” the South Carolina Republican wrote on X.
Mace, 48, is one of several Republicans who complained after Wednesday’s briefing that the Pete Hegseth-led Pentagon is being opaque about the full scope of its plans in the nearly month-old war.
“Today’s briefing did not inspire confidence. I left with serious questions about what is on our list of military objectives—and what has been quietly taken off,” she told the Daily Caller.
Mace, who has fallen out of the White House’s favor for backing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly sounded the alarm about putting U.S. boots on the ground.
“Just walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran. Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing,” the congresswoman wrote on X.
She later added, “I will not support sending South Carolina’s sons and daughters to war in Iran. I won’t do it.”
Trump, 79, and Hegseth, 45, have refused to rule out deploying U.S. soldiers directly into the conflict, and roughly 7,000 ground troops are en route to the region for a potential deployment, The New York Times reports.
Mace said the White House is not being honest with the American public about the objectives in the war.
“The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee,” she wrote. “This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people.”
Another Republican, Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, ripped the Pentagon for stonewalling on questions about the thousands of troops being sent to the region, a development that has raised fears of a ground invasion.
“We just wanted them to tell us what’s the plan, and we didn’t get any answers,” the 74-year-old Mississippi senator said, according to Politico. “I understand they can’t give us, they shouldn’t give us, specific operational details. But generally, we should be able to get more texture than we’re receiving from them.”
House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, raised similar concerns.
“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered,” the 67-year-old lawmaker said. “And we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
