Lawler Rejects Trump's 'Small Potatoes' Iran War
Lawler Rejects Trump's 'Small Potatoes' Iran War
The News
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) broke with President Donald Trump on Sunday over the president's description of the U.S.-Iran conflict as "small potatoes," telling CNN's "State of the Union" that war is "certainly not" that.
"Anytime you are at war or in a military escalation, it is certainly not 'small potatoes,'" Lawler said. "It is serious. I think we all recognize that."
The dissent lands as Lawler runs in one of the tightest House races in the country — in a district he has said is more than 50 percent service members, veterans, law enforcement and first responders.
Timeline
Trump traveled to New York to back Lawler's reelection bid, calling him "fantastic" and telling supporters, "He's a terrific guy. You're lucky to have him."
Lawler helped lead a bipartisan letter urging Trump not to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, an earlier break with the president, according to Politico.
Pressed in the Oval Office by ABC News' Rachel Scott about Vice President JD Vance's refusal to call the conflict a war, Trump said: "A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing." Mediaite reported he contrasted the 18 Americans killed in the Iran conflict with the far larger U.S. death toll in Vietnam.
The U.S. struck three Iranian targets, CNN's Dana Bash said on air the following day.
Bash put Trump's phrase to Lawler and asked whether he would use it with his own constituents. "No," he answered.
Reactions
Lawler did not stop at the disagreement. He argued the stakes are high precisely because the mission is serious: keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, cutting off its financing of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, halting its mass production of ballistic missiles and drones used by Russia against Ukraine, and keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial traffic.
Oil is "back up to about 70% of what it was" flowing through the Strait before the conflict, Lawler said.
He rejected the charge that he is simply a Trump ally. "It's not a function of alignment. It's a function of doing the job," he said. "In order to get anything done, you have to be able to reach across the aisle and also work within your own party."
His Democratic opponent, Cait Conley, who has accused Lawler of aligning too closely with Trump, appeared Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
What's Next
Lawler will appear at this week's midterm Republican convention despite the public disagreement, Politico reported.
The open question is whether other Republicans in competitive districts follow him in publicly rejecting the "small potatoes" framing — and whether Trump, who campaigned for Lawler in May, responds.
More
Lawler said he does not see the fight as an oil-supply problem for the United States. "We don't rely on petroleum out of Iran. That is China," he said, tying the removal of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and the blockade on Iranian oil to a squeeze on Beijing's supply.
He pointed to two of his own bills on that front — the SHIP Act and the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act — and called for stronger sanctions on China.
Coverage split along predictable lines: Politico and Mediaite framed the remark as a break with Trump, while The American Spectator argued from the right that America is at war with Iran whether Washington calls it one or not.
Poll
Is the U.S. conflict with Iran a war?
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