Georgia Republicans rally behind Trump after U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran

Georgia political leaders reacted swiftly and sharply Saturday after the United States and Israel launched major military strikes on Iran that President Donald Trump said killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader for nearly four decades.

Top Georgia Republicans swiftly aligned themselves with Trump, who framed the attacks as necessary to cripple Tehran’s missile program, halt its nuclear ambitions and bring about regime change.

Many echoed U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican Senate candidate who said Trump acted squarely within his constitutional authority against “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”

Prominent Georgia Democrats, meanwhile, accused Trump of a reckless attack that dragged the nation into another conflict without congressional approval.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat seeking another term in November, said he opposed “yet another regime change war-of-choice in the Middle East” and called on Congress to immediately pass a war powers resolution.

“Trump has launched this regime change war and put American forces at risk without presenting evidence of an imminent threat, without clear objectives, without having exhausted diplomacy, without a plan for the aftermath, and without the consent of Congress,” he said.

The sharp divide quickly spread across Georgia’s political spectrum, touching nearly every corner of the state’s high-stakes Senate and governor’s contests.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor, echoed that support, thanking the president for his “strength and decisive action” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, another Republican Senate contender, said the attack will “protect America from the Iranian regime.”

“Under President Trump, the United States will no longer stand idly by while our enemies plot against us and chant ‘Death to America,’” Collins added.

And Attorney General Chris Carr, who is running for governor, called Iran a “threat to the U.S. and the world.”

“America will defend our people, our freedoms and our allies,” he said.

Democrats intensified their criticism as the day unfolded and more details about the attacks surfaced.

Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said Trump had started a “forever war” that Americans do not want and encouraged him to “do everything in his power to find a diplomatic solution.”

Other Democrats echoed those concerns.

“Trump promised peace,” said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the former head of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Here we are again, waking up to him waging another illegal war.”

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, said the strikes are “an attack on the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law” because they came without congressional authority.

“I strongly condemn this war of choice, and I call upon Republicans who control Congress to immediately call members back to Washington to exercise our constitutional responsibilities,” Johnson wrote on X.

While most Georgia Republicans backed Trump, at least one prominent former ally broke ranks.

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned in January after a feud with Trump, said the attack feels like the “worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different.”

She then linked the overseas conflict to economic struggles at home.

“Another foreign war for foreign people for foreign regime change,” she later continued. “For what? Does it lower our inflation that our government caused?”