U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) says President Trump started the war with Iran without knowing how he would end it and has left inexperienced negotiators trying to find a way out.
“The president got into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, without an exit strategy,” Kelly said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“He’s stuck,” the Arizona Democrat added.
Kelly, a retired Navy combat pilot, said Trump should replace Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with experienced diplomats. It’s a suggestion that has also been offered by influential Republicans, including ret. Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who have both called for Trump to replace Kushner and Witkoff.
“He’s got his son-in-law trying to negotiate this with his golf and real estate buddy,” Kelly said. “They’re not the best people in our country to do this.”
Sen. Mark Kelly responds to a statement by the Iranian president that most of the U.S. bases in the region are unusable: “I don’t think that’s accurate.”https://t.co/CTYJlnzuQm pic.twitter.com/U8ZYFRCgji
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 27, 2026
Kelly said Iran cannot be allowed to control the Strait of Hormuz or obtain a nuclear weapon. But he argued that both problems became more difficult after Trump launched the war.
“I think what the president would love to do is get back to where he was before he started this thing,” Kelly said.
“The Iranians weren’t racing to get a nuclear weapon. The Straits were open. And we didn’t have over 20 dead service members and 800 injured.”
Kelly called the war “a disaster” and “a mistake.”
ABC’s Martha Raddatz also asked Kelly about Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s claim that most U.S. military bases in the region had been rendered unusable.
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Kelly replied.
Kelly said buildings at several American bases had sustained serious damage, but he rejected Pezeshkian’s claim that most of the bases could no longer be used.
“If you add up all the costs in military equipment, buildings, weapons used, we are probably in excess of $40 billion at this point with no end in sight,” Kelly said.
[NOTE: CNN reported in mid-September that the Pentagon told Congress that “war costs were $43.6 billion as of September 3 plus an additional $1.5 billion for extra fuel,” according to sources, who said that estimate was not a “full accounting.”]
To emphasize his point, Kelly enumerated differences between the world before the Iran war and after it, saying that before it started, “we had no dead service members. We had no injured service members. Gas was cheaper. The Straits were open. And now we’re in a much worse place.”