Press review: Trump, GOP clash over Iran war as NATO launches Baltic drills

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump risks losing control of his party amid differences over the Iran war, and NATO begins its BALTOPS 2026 naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, Poland is pushing for a permanent US military base. These stories topped Friday's headlines in Russia.

The House of Representatives voted against US President Donald Trump’s continued war in Iran. The resolution was passed only because some in the president’s Republican party supported it. The same might happen at the Senate vote as Trump is facing an open rebellion from part of GOP members. While it is too early to predict that the Republicans will soon turn away from their president, rather American society is increasingly dissatisfied with the Iran war and Trump’s policies which his party members cannot but ignore with six months until the congressional midterms.

As many as 215 Congressmen, including four Republicans, voted for the resolution, a fourth such document endorsed at the House, with 208 votes against. Trump hit back at legislators who voted to rebuke him in the midst of the Iran war, calling them "unpatriotic" on his Truth Social platform.

Now that proponents of halting the war have demonstrated their abilities at both houses, there is a likelihood that Congress and the Senate will adopt one of the two latest resolutions - either May’s or June’s. Trump will then have to veto it, publicly going against both lawmakers and US public opinion, which is against the war. The American president also suffered another blow from his party members as six Republicans supported the Democrats’ resolution on continued support to Ukraine in a House vote, a document the White House has opposed.

Pavel Koshkin, an expert in American studies, called the House vote to halt the Iran war a symbolic victory for Trump’s opponents. The very fact that Congressmen approved this resolution on a fourth attempt indicates a growing rift in the Republican camp around Trump’s policies, he said. "The president has so far managed to bridge this gap. But the longer the conflict with Tehran lasts, the more these cracks will show," Koshkin told Vedomosti.

Scenarios that NATO forces will simulate in the course of the BALTOPS 2026 naval maneuvers will include imposing a blockade on the Kaliningrad Region, launching strikes on Russian ground-based targets, and seizing civilian vessels, experts interviewed by Izvestia say. This year’s exercise involves twice fewer participants than last year’s drills because a substantial part of the allied forces is taking part in the Middle East cam