An influential MAGA congressman has warned President Donald Trump that he could lose his own party if the Iran fight turns into an American ground war.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, 61, said on Sunday that he still wants the pressure kept on Tehran—but he drew a political line for Trump, 79, when talk turned to American boots on the ground.
“I don’t think there’s a will for a ground conflict between America and Iran,” Burchett told NewsNation. “I know a lot of Republicans don’t support that, and I know all the Democrats won’t support it.”
Burchett’s warning came after he was asked on air about reports that the Pentagon is preparing for potential weeks of ground operations in Iran, with options that could include Special Operations raids and conventional infantry.
When pressed on whether that could become a political problem within the GOP, Burchett did not dodge the truth. “I think it is,” he said, before adding, “I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Burchett issued his warning amid muddled messaging from the administration on its Iran strategy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington could meet its objectives in Iran “without any ground troops,” even as he acknowledged that thousands more troops were being sent to the region to give Trump “maximum optionality.”
Trump has also floated a major expansion of the war. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said his “favorite thing” would be to “take the oil in Iran,” and in a Truth Social post early on Monday, he again threatened Kharg Island and other Iranian energy infrastructure if a deal is not reached quickly.
An estimated 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to, or are moving toward, the region, including around 3,500 who arrived on Friday. Reuters has separately reported that the administration is planning to send thousands more soldiers, as speculation grows over whether Trump is edging toward a far more dangerous phase of the war.
Burchett is not calling for America to back off. In the same exchange, he said “now is not the time to let up,” and argued that the people of Iran would have to “take the bull by the horns” themselves if regime change is ever going to happen.
Burchett’s urging of caution threatens to add to the fracturing of the MAGA coalition over Iran. On Monday, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, 51, blasted Fox News as “fake news” and accused it of “brainwashing boomers” into backing a war the America First wing never wanted. Former Fox News regular Ann Coulter, 64, compared the network’s chest-thumping Iran coverage to its false 2020 election claims.
The trio’s unease about ground troops tracks wider nerves within Trumpworld. Among Trump allies, there is both deep skepticism about putting U.S. troops on Iranian soil and weak public polling for any large-scale ground invasion.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast: “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander in Chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the President has made a decision.”
