WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s war on Iran has spiked oil prices and driven inflation back up while severely dragging down his approval rating and lasting way longer than the administration planned.

Despite all that, Republicans in Congress said Thursday they were happy for the president to escalate the conflict if that’s what he wants to do.

Trump wrote on his website Thursday morning after two days of renewed fighting that the U.S. would attack Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and could soon capture an island off the Iranian coast that’s key to the country’s oil production. (On Thursday afternoon, Trump said he canceled the strikes, once again citing positive developments in negotiations.)

Before Trump appeared to back down, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he supported the president being “much more aggressive,” a sentiment echoed by several other senators.

“I certainly think it’s the time for us to stand behind the president,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told HuffPost. “I think it’s time to stand with our military, and really, we can’t allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.”

Republicans’ support for escalating the war comes a day after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced inflation had surged to 4.2% in May, a level not seen since the Biden administration. The price surge stemmed directly from the Iran conflict pushing up the cost of oil.

The American public doesn’t like the war, with voters disapproving by a 21-point margin that’s only widened since spring, according to one survey aggregator.

Trump said in March, in the early days of the conflict, that it might last only four or five weeks. Three months later, there’s no clear metric for success other than reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed only as a result of the war, and stopping Iran’s nuclear program, which Trump claimed last year he’d already obliterated.

“The progress has been delayed because the Iranians are doing the usual thing, not negotiating in good faith. Delay, delay, delay,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told HuffPost.

“I think it’s necessary for the president to apply more pressure and get more leverage within negotiation. It appears that’s what he’s attempting to do,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said.

Still, there is some opposition to the war from the president’s party. Both the House and Senate have approved symbolic resolutions to end the war, thanks to votes from a handful of Republicans.

Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Bill Cassidy (La.) have voted to advance an antiwar resolution, and it’s possible more could join them as Democrats continue to force war votes, though it’s unlikely there would soon be enough support to override a presidential veto.

Murkowski said Thursday the war “doesn’t appear to be going in the right direction.” HuffPost asked if she trusted Trump’s latest claim that a deal is at hand. (Trump has made a similar claim 38 times before, according to CNN’s tally.)

“I think you know the answer to that question,” Murkowski said.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has voted against resolutions to end the war but cautioned in March against the U.S. deploying ground troops and said he hoped for a “swift end” to the conflict, wouldn’t say much about Trump’s fresh threats.

“I don’t have a reaction, to be honest, because I imagine some of that is — maybe all of it — is directed towards Iran, you know, to say this is what we could do, but I just, I don’t know,” Hawley told reporters Thursday.

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