With the U.S. massing forces within striking distance of Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Tuesday with the “Gang of Eight,” a group of party leaders in the House and Senate customarily informed by the White House when military attacks are imminent.
Rubio was briefing the senior lawmakers hours ahead of the President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, with tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program looming over the speech.
Typically, presidential administrations will let the group know ahead of major military actions, such as the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the direction of former President Barack Obama.
The Trump administration, however, has not briefed the group in advance of recent military operations, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January (the group was briefed afterward), the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020 and Operation Midnight Hammer last summer, in which U.S. forces bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.
The decision to brief these senior lawmakers now signals that any action against Iran the administration is weighing may be more substantial.
The current Gang of Eight consists of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee; and Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Jim Himes, D-Conn., the chair and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Congressional Democrats have expressed concern that Trump is circumventing the War Powers Act, the federal law that requires the president to obtain congressional approval before committing armed forces to combat.
Last week, Schumer underscored in a statement that Congress alone has the power to declare war, adding that “the administration has yet to articulate to Congress and the American people what the objectives or strategy would be for any potential military campaign against Iran, let alone what it would mean for the lives of American service members or the costs for American taxpayers.”
The U.S. and Iran have been in fragile negotiations in recent weeks regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Trump has also called for regime change in Iran after widespread unrest in the country, and publicly clashed with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Each has threatened the other with military action.
The Pentagon sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, and another aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as other U.S. military assets to the region ahead of a potential attack. Iran has warned that it will retaliate if threatened.
CORRECTION (Feb. 24, 2025, 2:42 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that President Donald Trump was slated to brief the “Gang of Eight” on Tuesday. The briefing is being held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and is not on Trump’s official schedule.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.