Part of: January 6 & the Trump Relationship
'President Trump has won the war, time to exit': Mace breaks with Trump on Iran and signals she'll vote with Democrats
On March 26, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace told Axios that 'War with Iran needs to end. President Trump has won the war, time to exit,' and signaled she would 'most likely' vote with House Democrats on the next war powers resolution constraining the Iran war. She told Axios by text she was 'not voting to send South Carolina's sons and daughters into battle to die for the price of oil,' and warned on CNN that continuing the war could cost Republicans in the midterms. Political Wire summed the day up as 'Trump Loses Nancy Mace on the Iran War.'
A day after she walked out of a classified Iran briefing (see 'Another Iraq'), Rep. Nancy Mace made the break explicit. On March 26, 2026, she told Axios the war should end and that she was prepared to cross the aisle to force the issue, a striking position for a member who had spent the campaign season calling herself "Trump in high heels."
Reporting credit: This was an Axios scoop, Axios, "Scoop: Nancy Mace eyes break with GOP on Iran war powers vote" (March 26, 2026), and corroborated by The Western Journal, Political Wire, and The Independent / inkl.
In her statement to Axios, Mace credited Trump with victory and then called for the exit in the same breath:
"War with Iran needs to end. President Trump has won the war, time to exit.", Nancy Mace, to Axios, March 26, 2026
Axios reported that Mace said she would "most likely" vote for House Democrats' resolution to constrain Trump from continuing the war the next time it came to the floor, a reversal from the March 5 war powers vote, when she had voted with Republicans to defeat such a measure.
She put the stakes in the bluntest possible terms in a text message to Axios:
"I'm not voting to send South Carolina's sons and daughters into battle to die for the price of oil.", Nancy Mace, text message to Axios, March 26, 2026
Mace's text to Axios, March 26, 2026.
The midterm warning
In a CNN segment headlined "Enormous cost," Mace tied the war to her party's prospects in November. As reported by CNN, she argued that continuing the war could cost Republicans in the midterms, and that the minute there is a single U.S. boot on the ground in Iran, Americans who support the war will change their minds. (CNN's video page is the source for this characterization; the network does not make the clip embeddable off-site, so it is linked below.)
Watch: "I haven't seen an exit strategy yet"
The closest verified, embeddable recording from the same stretch is Mace's own CBS News interview, in which she presses the exit-strategy point directly:
Video: CBS News, "Rep. Nancy Mace shares concerns about Iran war: 'I haven't seen an exit strategy yet,'" March 26, 2026 (the network's official upload).
Context
Political Wire headlined the day "Trump Loses Nancy Mace on the Iran War." The break came in the middle of Mace's run for South Carolina governor. Two months later, on May 29, 2026, Trump endorsed her rival Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, and on June 9 Mace finished fifth in the Republican primary (see On CNN's board, anchors can't find Mace). She had publicly attributed the endorsement snub to her Epstein-files vote; her Iran posture was the other open break with Trump running through the same period.
Sources & related coverage:
- Axios, "Scoop: Nancy Mace eyes break with GOP on Iran war powers vote" (the originating report)
- The Western Journal, "Nancy Mace Poised to Side with Democrats to Pass War Powers Resolution: 'War with Iran Needs to End'"
- Political Wire, "Trump Loses Nancy Mace on the Iran War"
- The Independent / inkl, "Mace defects to Democrat side of Iran battle"
- CNN, "'Enormous cost': GOP Rep. Nancy Mace says war with Iran could cost Republicans in midterms" (video; not embeddable off-site)
- CBS News, "Rep. Nancy Mace shares concerns about Iran war: 'I haven't seen an exit strategy yet'" (video)
- See also: 'Another Iraq': Mace walks out of a classified Iran briefing and the 2026 Governor Campaign.
Read next
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On March 25, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace walked out of a classified House Armed Services Committee briefing on the Iran war and posted that she 'will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing,' warning that 'the Washington War Machine' wanted to turn Iran into 'another Iraq.' The same week she demanded that President Trump remove Sen. Lindsey Graham 'from the Situation Room,' first on X and then on CNN. The posture put her against the Iran-hawk wing of her own party even as she continued to praise Trump.
July 12, 2026 · DispatchTrump allies say they can 'block Rep. Nancy Mace' from Graham seat appointment
As Nancy Mace's team explored a fast run for the Senate seat left open by Lindsey Graham's death, the sharper signal came from Trump's orbit. Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill posted that Trump allies said they would be able to 'block Rep. Nancy Mace' from the seat, while Political Wire's excerpt framed it as blocking her from the appointment and privately pointed to her public clashes with Trump. The report landed the same morning Trump said on Meet the Press that he already had 'somebody' in mind for the vacancy, though Gov. Henry McMaster formally controls the interim appointment.
March 18, 2026 · DispatchAnonymous White House officials blast Mace's Israel rescue missions as 'political gain'; Mace says she kept State informed throughout
The Guardian reported on March 18, 2026, picked up by Raw Story and WTOC, that unnamed Trump White House and State Department officials were furious at Rep. Nancy Mace over her two evacuation trips to Israel. The anonymous officials alleged she contacted the Saudi government without notifying State, asked the administration to requisition a Saudi plane for ~300 people, and urged Americans toward Jordan without secured onward travel. Mace's office said she kept State informed and that State approved the DHS plane. The dispute is unresolved and every government critic spoke anonymously.
September 17, 2026 · DispatchNancy Mace: "We Have the Lowest Ratings Ever in the History," and She Predicts a Midterm "Bloodbath"
Caught in a Capitol hallway by CNN's Manu Raju on September 16, 2026, Nancy Mace was asked whether the public agrees the House did a great job before Speaker Mike Johnson sent members home for a seven-week pre-midterm recess. Her answer: 'No, actually not. We have the lowest ratings ever in the history.' She also predicted the 2026 midterms would be 'a bloodbath.'
September 17, 2026 · DispatchTwo Weeks Before She Did It, Nancy Mace Told CNN She Would Cross Trump on Iran War Powers
On September 1, 2026, Nancy Mace appeared on CNN's The Situation Room and told Wolf Blitzer she was ready to vote for the War Powers Act: 'The grace period is over.' She added: 'By God, we also don't want 100,000 American troops dead in Tehran.' Fourteen days later, she did exactly what she said, one of 7 Republicans voting 220 to 204 to rein in Trump's Iran war.
September 16, 2026 · DispatchNancy Mace Just Voted to Rein In Trump's Iran War: One of 7 Republicans, Six Months After She Vowed to 'Finish the Job'
On the night of September 15, 2026, the House voted 220 to 204 for the third time to rein in President Trump's war with Iran. Seven Republicans crossed the aisle, and Nancy Mace was one of them. She was also one of three who did it for the first time. Six months earlier, on March 5, 2026, Mace had voted NO on a materially identical war powers resolution and declared: 'This is not the time for Congress to tie the hands of our Commander-in-Chief. We must finish the job.' This dispatch records the reversal, the roll call, and the breaking-news footage, captioned to show Mace among the seven.