Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with Sen. Angus King (I-ME) (left), speaks during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill with Gen. Gregory Guyot, commander of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (USNORTHCOM), Mark Ditrebson, assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Inter-American Security Affairs, and Charles Young III, principal deputy general counsel at the Department of the Army. December 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday questioned why the U.S. Transportation Command and the State Department aren’t doing more to get stranded Americans out of the Middle East amid the war with Iran.
The Massachusetts Democrat told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that tens of thousands of Americans may still be stranded in the region and that the Trump administration has been too slow to respond as violence spills from Iran to neighboring countries.
“Let me be clear: The Trump administration chose this war. They planned this war for months, but they did not plan to protect hundreds of thousands of Americans in the region. There is no excuse for this,” Warren said.
Americans reported feeling stranded in the area in the early days of the war. The scramble began after the State Department warned Americans from 14 countries to “leave now,” with some saying they were left to fend for themselves. Amid criticism, the State Department announced last week that it was increasing flights to help Americans leave the region.
President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week that the war would be over “soon,” but there is no immediate end in sight, and Americans in the region are trying to grapple with an evolving regional conflict.
Since President Trump announced war with Iran on February 28, the State Department has regularly released updates on the number of Americans who have moved out of the region, with a spokesperson on Thursday announcing that nearly 47,000 nationals have returned to the United States.
The State Department operates more than 20 charter flights, and the number of seats available on those flights currently exceeds demand, the spokesperson said.
“While the availability of commercial air flights across the region continues to improve, the State Department’s charter flights and ground transportation operations remain operational,” a spokesperson said, without giving his name, in response to an email sent to the agency’s media contact account.
Transcom commander Gen. Randall Reed testified at Thursday’s hearing that his command helped airlift hundreds of Americans out of the region.
But Warren said that effort is not enough.
“What I’m trying to understand is why aren’t you doing more?” Warren asked Reid. “Because we’re hearing from voters who are stuck there, who have been stuck there for two weeks and are asking for help and are not getting any assistance from the U.S. government.”
bring Americans home
While many Americans have left and some are choosing to remain in the area, others remain stranded. A State Department spokesperson said the department is “currently working 24/7 to bring Americans home.”
Some lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands.
Rep. Nancy Mace (RS.C.) posted on X about her trip to the Middle East this week to help local stranded families in her district.
“The families I traveled here returned home safely, but I have since learned about many more families. Hundreds and thousands of families are still stranded,” Mace wrote.
Congressional caseworkers, the aides who field questions from constituents, similarly report that Americans feel stymied and frustrated with the federal government’s response to the war.
One caseworker for Senate Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said he had heard from voters in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Israel, Kuwait and other countries. Some are tourists, some are Americans who are in the area for students or work, and some are families.
“People in the Middle East just want to leave, but there’s no way to leave, they’re scared, they’re scared, they feel abandoned,” the caseworker said. “Their families here are terrified and wondering why the U.S. government has not yet brought their loved ones home.”
Inconsistent messages from the administration haven’t helped, said a Senate caseworker and a Democratic caseworker in the House, speaking on condition of anonymity.
House aides say that during the first days of the war, the guidance for Americans in the area was to shelter in place. But the “leave now” message on March 2 caused panic. Airspace was closed in many countries in the region, making commercial flights unlikely to return home. The government provided a helpline number, but wait times were long. According to caseworkers, even if they survived, they were sometimes told they were left to fend for themselves.
“What I heard from voters was complete panic,” the House aide said.
