President Donald Trump had to stress the lack of practical importance of the Senate’s recent 50-48 war powers resolution vote to the Iranians on Tuesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) confirmed.
“I think it would be fair to say that he was very upset about the war powers vote,” Kennedy told reporters following Trump’s lunch with Republican senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“He was in the middle of pretty heavy duty negotiations, and he had to stop, and he explained to the Iranian negotiators why it was a meaningless vote,” the senator added.
“I don’t blame him at all,” he said regarding the president’s frustration with the vote.
Trump alluded to the confusion the vote may have caused in a late Tuesday Truth Social post where he called the vote “poorly timed and meaningless.”
“Four Republican Losers voted with the Dumocrats, and Iran asked my people, ‘what does that all mean?’ 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!”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Trump also traded barbs over the situation in Iran during the lunch, as Cassidy voted for the resolution and remains skeptical of the Trump administration's approach to the conflict.
“I lost my temper. That's not appropriate,” Cassidy told reporters after the lunch, adding that other senators were urging him to calm down.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski voted for the resolution, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who sometimes bucks his own party, decided against it.
Iran and the United States recently signed a memorandum of understanding, which is intended to briefly pause the conflict as final talks regarding the Middle Eastern nation’s nuclear weapon desires are discussed.
The White House deferred to the president’s comments following the meeting when Townhall reached out.
.@POTUS wraps up his lunch with the @SenateGOP: "I think we had a really great meeting... We have the hottest country in the world — and we want to keep it that way." pic.twitter.com/APvMYRpJox
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 24, 2026
"I think we had a really great meeting... we like everybody really in the room. I don’t like a few people, but that’s okay. I think you know who they are… but for the most part, we have a really unified party.”
“And Iran is being very nice – they’re agreeing to everything I want, and they have to. Otherwise we just go back and do what we have to do,” Trump continued.