US President Trump clashes with Senate over Iran resolution and housing bill

US President Donald Trump clashed with members of the Senate on Wednesday after Congress had passed a largely symbolic resolution urging him to bring the conflict with Iran to an end.

Trump canceled what was supposed to be a signing ceremony celebrating new housing legislation aiming to please voters in the run-up to November's mid term elections. He said he would not sign the bill, which Republicans had hailed in both houses of Congress, until they passed his voting reform package he calls the "Save America Act."

"Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

The act includes plans to proof of citizenship to register to vote, and photo ID when voting. Democrats criticize it as an assault on voting rights, Trump argues it's necessary to safeguard elections.

Trump, and rebel Senator report clash over Iran war

Although Trump portrayed his trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday as tied to a pair of domestic policies, it also followed immediately after Senators narrowly passed a so-called War Powers Resolution urging Trump to "remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with Iran."

Four Republicans had joined Democrats in approving the motion, which had already cleared the House, where more Republicans openly question the conflict.

One rebel Republican, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told reporters that he had clashed with Trump in a closed-door meeting.

"I stood and said, 'You have not told the American people what's going on. It was supposed to last four weeks; it's lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved and I want to know what's going on,'" Cassidy told reporters after the meeting.

Cassidy already knows he will not run for re-election as a Republican Senator in November after losing the nomination to a Trump-backed candidate.

Trump also appeared to allude to the clash on leaving the meeting, telling reporters: "I don't like a few people, but that's okay -— I think you know who they are."

After Trump's angry appearance, Senators subsequently rejected another similar motion by 50 votes to 47, seemingly undermining the previous day's resolution. Technically though, this failed motion does not invalidate the one from a day earlier.

Trump celebrated this online, saying that it "puts Iran on notice." Quite what this is supposed to mean given the apparent efforts to negotiate a long-term peace is open to debate.

What had led to this?

The US Senate resolution passed on Tuesday directing Trump to end US military action against Iranwas a rare bipartisan rebuke of the White House as it pursues a diplomatic deal with Tehran.

The largely symbolic resolution was voted 50-48 by the Republican-majority Senate, after earlier clearing the House of Representatives with Republican support.

As a "concurrent resolution," it does not require Trump's signature and carries disputed legal weight.

The vote reflected concern in Congress over a war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

It also is one of the handful of times tha a few Republicans broke with the president to vote across the aisle, highlighting how some congressional members of Trump's Republican Party are growing skeptical of US military operations against Iran.

Trump dismissed Congress resolution

Trump criticized the largely symbolic Congress resolution calling it "poorly timed and meaningless."

"So, I have Iran on the 'ropes,' ready to go down for the fall...and the US Senate decides to have a poorly timed and meaningless War Powers Act Vote," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"These Senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done!"

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, called the vote a "very dangerous prospect" amid negotiations with Tehran.

Americans growing skeptical of Iran war

The vote came at a time when a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that three in four Americans don't believe the war with Iran was worth the costs. A majority also said that a truce with Tehran appeared unlikely to be sustainable.

Some Republicans also expressed unease over the conflict and its economic costs, while Democrats maintain that the president violated the Constitution by launching military operations without congressional approval.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is trying to turn a preliminary peace agreement with Tehran into a final deal covering Iran's nuclear program, sanctions relief and passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The negotiations are ongoing.