Sen. Gary Peters on Trump, Iran, and Democrats' Fight to Retake the Senate

The retiring Democratic Senator says Trump’s war of choice has created an economic mess — and warns Democrats not to be complacent about Michigan's Senate seat.

MACKINAC ISLAND — U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) has spent almost two decades in Congress, passing legislation across party lines and keeping his head down when politics got ugly. Now, in the final months of his Senate career, he’s in a different mode.

The Iran war. A wide-open Senate primary to replace him. A Republican Party he says has abandoned any pretense of governing. And a once-unthinkable opportunity for Democrats to take back the Senate majority.

I’ve covered Peters for the last 20 years. He sat down with me at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, where Michigan’s political and business elite gather for three days of panels, debates, and dealmaking. We discussed Trump, Iran, the Michigan U.S. Senate race, and the one piece of legislation he says he’ll carry with him when he leaves Washington.

‘A War of Choice’ — and a Mess Trump Can’t Get Out of

Peters didn’t mince words about the Trump administration’s decision to go to war with Iran — and what it’s costing ordinary Americans.

“We have a mess,” he said. “Donald Trump waded into a complete mess of a war. He’s kind of flailing and trying to find a successful conclusion to it.”

The senator served in the Navy, studied at the Naval War College, and is the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He offered a pointed critique of the military planning — or lack of it — that preceded the conflict. Peters noted that the Navy’s minesweepers, widely understood to be essential to any Iran contingency given the threat of the Straits of Hormuz being blocked, were stationed in Japan when the war began.

“You wouldn’t go to war, typically, against Iran and risk having the straits closed down by mines when you have your minesweepers in Japan,” he said. “We would have the assets in place before the war.”

That tactical failure, Peters argued, reflects a broader recklessness that’s now hitting Michigan families in the wallet. The ongoing war with Iran has led to a substantial rise in the cost of living — fuel prices, food prices, fertilizer, commodities — and Peters sees it as the dominant political issue heading into the midterms.

“Americans are already stressed economically for a whole list of reasons,” he said. “And even if this war comes to some sort of end in the near term, gas prices and energy prices — they don’t recover right away. It’s going to take a long time for that to happen.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed a deal with Iran is imminent. Peters wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t think it helps matters that we’re always on the verge of a deal that never seems to materialize,” he said. “That creates even more uncertainty in the markets, and when there’s uncertainty in the markets, that means prices are higher.”

The Michigan Senate Race: ‘This Will Be the Center of the Political Universe.’

Peters announced last year that he would not seek a third term — which shocked many in Michigan politics and immediately set off a scramble to succeed him. In November, this will be one of the most consequential races in the country.

Democrats are embroiled in a three-way primary on August 4. The winner will likely take on Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers in the Nov. 3 general election.

Peters has not endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primary, but his wife, Oakland University Trustee Colleen Ochoa Peters, has endorsed Congresswoman Haley Stevens. He said he talks regularly with all three Democratic contenders — Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed. But Peters declined to answer when I asked him which candidate has the best shot in the general election.

But he did stress that the seat is essential to any Democratic path back to the Senate majority — and losing it is not an option.

“When I say we have a good shot to take the majority of the Senate, that’s incumbent on us holding this seat,” he said. “This will be the center of the political universe come this fall. It will be the center of the political universe.”

He issued a clear warning to Democratic activists who might sit out the general if their candidate doesn’t win the primary.

“Whoever wins, everybody has to be united behind them — level ten,” Peters said. “We can’t have folks who are purists that only support their candidate and then sit out the general election, because the difference between where Mike Rogers is versus all three Democratic candidates is pretty big.”

Rogers, Peters said, should be taken seriously despite running a campaign that has tried to portray him as a moderate. Peters knows Rogers — they served together both in the Legislature and in Congress — and he said Republicans are ready to spend big, regardless of who wins the Democratic primary.

“You have to take that race seriously,” Peters said. “You will not lack for any resources on the Republican side. So you have to take that race seriously.”

‘Republicans Have Abdicated their Constitutional Duty’

Peters has served during both of Trump’s terms. The difference, he said, is stark — and it goes beyond policy.

In his first term, Trump had at least some resistance from within his cabinet, Peters told me. That resistance has largely disappeared during his second term. And he adds that the GOP-controlled Congress has failed to perform its most basic constitutional function: checking presidential power.

“Our founders were very clear that Congress should be the most powerful branch,” he said. “They always had some reservation about a president because they had just defeated a king in the Revolutionary War.”

The problem, Peters argued, isn’t just Trump. It’s the Republican majority’s decision to let him take powers that belong to Congress — on tariffs, on war, on spending — without a fight.

Peters argued that democracy must ultimately earn back public trust by delivering real results rather than by creating rhetoric. If Democrats take back the House and the Senate this November, he said, that changes immediately.

“When we take control, you’ll definitely see a more assertive Congress,” he said. “Things like war powers and the powers of the purse.”

The Legacy He’ll Carry: Fighting for Veterans

Asked what he’s most proud of after nearly two decades in Congress, Peters didn’t rattle off a foreign policy achievement or a marquee bill. He told me a story about a homeless Marine in Grand Rapids.

The veteran had served in Afghanistan, come home with undiagnosed PTSD, self-medicated, and received a bad paper discharge from the Marines. When he finally went to the VA and was diagnosed with service-related PTSD, he was told they couldn’t help him — because of the discharge.

“Here he is, diagnosed with PTSD as a result of his military service in Afghanistan, but couldn’t get help for it, and he was homeless on the streets,” Peters said.

The Senator sponsored the Fairness for Veterans Act, which changed the law so that veterans with credible evidence of service-connected conditions can petition a board to have their discharge status reviewed — and get the VA treatment they earned.

“He’s been helped,” Peters said. “And so have many thousands more.”

It is a quiet legacy, the kind that doesn’t make cable news. It fits a senator who built his reputation on turning off what he calls “campaign Gary” and turning on “governing Gary” — focused on results, not performance.

As he prepares to leave Washington, Peters said the work isn’t done. It never is.

“I’ll stay active,” he said. “I’m not retiring.”