Four House Republicans broke with President Trump this week, joining Democrats to pass a resolution demanding an end to the war in Iran. It was a small number, but a meaningful one. And for Dr. Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, it signals something larger.
Pipes joined guest host Sheila Gunn Reid on Thursday's edition of The Ezra Levant Show to walk through what the vote means for Trump, for the war, and for the broader Islamist movement watching from the sidelines.
"President Trump is losing his tight control over the House and Senate," Pipes said, noting that the vote reflects a growing sense among Americans that the war is not going well and that Congress needs a say in how it ends.
Under the War Powers Act, a president can engage in 60 days of hostilities without congressional approval — but not more. The House vote, Pipes argued, is the people's representatives drawing that line.
The war itself, which began in February 2026, was ambitious to the point of overreach. Trump called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, the elimination of its nuclear program, and the dismantling of its ballistic missile capabilities.
"You can't do all that," Pipes stated, especially without committing significant ground troops, and without first building the popular support that any such undertaking requires.
"There was no effort whatsoever back in February and March to win popular support," he said. "And now all Westerners, all civilized people, are paying the price for that."
So, where does the conflict go from here? Pipes said the most likely outcome resembles the 2015 Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — a negotiated deal that delivers some benefits to both sides but leaves the Islamic Republic intact and empowered.
Iran's strategy, he noted, is simply to run out the clock. Trump has two and a half years left, while Tehran has every incentive to negotiate slowly and wait for a potentially more accommodating administration in January 2029.
Sheila raised the implications for Canada, where she noted that depending on the estimate, several hundred to several thousand regime-linked individuals are already living freely on Canadian streets — and the Liberal government has been unwilling or unable to deport them.
Pipes agreed the domestic threat is real, calling it one detail of a much larger phenomenon.
"Islamism is the most dynamic totalitarian ideology in the world today," Pipes said. "Not communism, not fascism — Islamism."
He has argued since 2013 that the movement has been in global decline in traditional Muslim-majority countries. But that trend, he warned, is now at risk of reversing.
"If the deal is bad enough," he said, "it could get turned around and be stronger again."
