Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona said the United States cannot send troops into Iran for what he called “another forever war,” pressing the Trump administration to return to negotiations as officials weigh expanding the military campaign.
“We cannot put U.S. troops on the ground for another forever war, Americans won’t stand for it,” Stanton wrote on X. “The president needs to get back to the table and negotiate an end to this, now.”
Stanton attached a clip of his own appearance on NewsNation making the same case. “We cannot have American troops on the ground,” Stanton said. “We’re not gonna engage in another forever war. The American people won’t allow it. So the president needs to know the limitations of the position that he is in, and when you negotiate a solution, you have to have, not just a win-lose. It’s gotta make sense for both sides. So the president is gonna have to compromise, and that’s not a strength of this administration.”
Stanton’s comments come as the administration has signaled openness to putting American forces on Iranian soil. Asked directly by a reporter whether he would rule out ground troops, Trump told The Hill in a phone interview, “No,” adding that “normal people would make a deal” and that Iran would face further consequences if it did not negotiate.
Days later, during a television interview recapped by CNN’s live coverage, Trump again declined to rule out a ground campaign, saying “sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us,” without naming which countries had offered to send troops.
Separately, multiple U.S. officials described Trump as having privately expressed “serious interest” in deploying a small contingent of American ground troops for limited strategic purposes, rather than a large scale invasion, as part of his vision for a postwar Iran in which the country’s uranium stockpile is secured.
Stanton sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he serves on the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, and on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, according to his official committee assignments listed with the Clerk of the House.
Public opinion has consistently run against continuing the war. A Reuters and Ipsos poll cited in reporting on the conflict found 66 percent of Americans support ending the U.S. military campaign against Iran.
Congress has repeatedly tried to force an end to the conflict through War Powers Resolutions. Sen. Adam Schiff of California filed a new resolution after the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, co-sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine, Andy Kim, Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen. “Any assertion by the Trump administration that he gets 60 more days to act without Congress has no foundation in law,” Schiff said in a statement announcing the filing.
The Senate previously passed a concurrent resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities against Iran by a vote of 50-48 in June, with four Republicans joining Democrats, though the measure was nonbinding and Trump has continued military operations.
The war, which the Pentagon refers to internally as Operation Epic Fury, began Feb. 28 and has killed 17 U.S. service members as of July 19, according to Pentagon casualty figures cited in reporting on the military’s death toll. The most recent deaths came from an Iranian missile and drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan and a separate ordnance disposal incident in northern Iraq.
The White House has not issued a statement directly responding to Stanton’s remarks. Officials have said ground troops remain an option the president has not ruled out, even as they describe no current plan to deploy them as part of the operation.