Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who announced in January 2025 that he will not seek re-election, had no easy answers for CNN anchor Jake Tapper when pressed on why Republicans appear willing to walk into a midterm buzzsaw alongside President Donald Trump. A retired Air Force brigadier general who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, Bacon represents the Omaha-based 2nd District — a seat that backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race even as Bacon won re-election there, a split-ticket result that underscores the electoral tightrope his party now walks.

"In 2024, Republicans hammered Democrats for being out of touch over the cost of living and affordability issues. And it worked. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House," Tapper said. "So now that Trump is getting hammered over the affordability issue, why are so many Republicans still willing to stay loyal to Trump at the risk of meeting the same fate as 2024 Democrats, who were defeated?"

The stakes behind Tapper's question are structural: Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and the party of an incumbent president has lost House seats in nearly every midterm since World War II, with 1998 and 2002 the notable exceptions.

"Well, it's a very good question, Jake," Bacon replied. The congressman had earlier devoted a monologue to the economic swamp into which Trump has plunged not only Republicans but also American voters.

Tapper also cited Arizona Republican strategist Barrett Marson, who earlier told CNN: "There is one person in this country who doesn't care about gas prices, just one. And unfortunately, that one person controls our fate." The anchor then asked whether Republicans will be forced to "distance themselves from Trump, given how unpopular both he and the war and the ensuing high gas prices are." Gasoline prices rank among the most politically sensitive costs for American households, and conflicts involving Iran draw particular scrutiny because roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint along Iran's coastline.

Bacon appeared beaten as he pointed out that Trump and Republicans "cannot fight a war in a partisan manner."

"The case was there, but the president tried to go it alone, and that it was going to be a quick fight. 'We're gonna make a deal tomorrow. We're going to make a deal next week. A deal is imminent,' [Trump said]," Bacon said. "I think these things have undermined this effort."

"But if we stop this now, Iran wins and Iran could still produce a nuclear weapon," Bacon added, looking sheepish. "Maybe not as soon as it could have, but with China's or Russia's help or North Korea's help, they can rebuild this capability and they will still be the leading exporter of terrorists. I think the president has to keep this blockade on. He's got to prevail in this fight. Because if he doesn't, we're going to have a worse threat on our hands down the road. But he's sort of put us in a spot where he's backed into a corner with this being an unpopular war. And I just — it goes back from the beginning: this had to be a bipartisan effort, not a one-man band. But that's what it became."

Bacon's "one-man band" critique touches one of Washington's oldest constitutional fault lines: Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and the 1973 War Powers Resolution — passed over President Richard Nixon's veto — was written to check unilateral presidential military action, a boundary presidents of both parties have tested in the decades since.

Tapper then referenced Trump's recent gaffe involving family members of the crew aboard the USS Lincoln, who described terrible conditions on board and horrible morale amid a grueling, abnormally long deployment. Trump denied the family members' claims and said the deployment was "not nearly long enough." Navy carrier crews have faced a string of extended deployments in recent years as the service has stretched its carrier fleet across competing demands in the Middle East and elsewhere, and their families have grown increasingly vocal about the toll.

"I wish you wouldn't have said that the deployment wasn't long enough," lamented Bacon, a veteran. "There should be some empathy here."

The exchange aired on CNN (YouTube).