Trump presses Iran deal talks as Cabinet meets amid backlash

Donald Trump is set to meet his Cabinet on Wednesday at Camp David as his push for a deal with Iran collides with open rebellion from some of his most reliable Republican allies. The president has told aides that the United States and Iran have “largely negotiated” a settlement, but the terms remain unsettled and the political risk is rising fast.

At the center of the talks is a package that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ease hostilities, unfreeze some Iranian assets and keep nuclear negotiations going. Marco Rubio, speaking Monday, called the talks “a work in progress” and said the administration has a “pretty solid thing on the table” on the strait. He added that diplomacy would get every chance to succeed before Washington explores alternatives, while warning that the nuclear talks face a “very real, significant time limit.”

That message has not calmed Trump’s critics inside his own coalition. Senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas have all attacked the emerging terms as too generous to Tehran. Cruz said a deal that leaves Iran with access to billions of dollars, uranium enrichment and control over the Strait of Hormuz would be a “disastrous mistake.” Wicker called a proposed 60-day ceasefire a “disaster” and warned that everything achieved by Operation Epic Fury would be “for naught.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the floated bargain would effectively reward the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump is trying to frame any outcome as proof of strength, even as he tells negotiators not to rush into a bad deal. He has said “time is on our side,” while blasting critics as “losers.” That posture suggests he sees a chance for a Nixon-to-China moment, a hard-line president striking an opening with an adversary that many in his party would never accept from a Democrat. But the response from his own ranks shows the opposite danger too: if the deal is seen as too soft, it could fracture the very base that brought him back to power.

The stakes are sharpened by a war that has now dragged on for nearly three months. U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and mine-laying boats in southern Iran on Monday, even as Washington said it was still exercising restraint and Tehran denounced the attacks as bad faith.

Operation Epic Fury began on February 28 at 1:15 a.m. By April 1, U.S. Central Command said it had struck more than 12,300 targets and flown 13,000 combat missions, with 155 or more Iranian vessels damaged or destroyed. The Pentagon has said more than 5,000 Iranian vessels were damaged or destroyed in the first 10 days, using B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers, stealth fighters, drones, Patriot and THAAD systems, aircraft carriers and submarines. With Republicans already worried about fuel prices and the political mood heading into the 2026 midterms, Trump’s Iran gamble could still read either as a signature breakthrough or the kind of deal that blows up in his own coalition.