Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska — one of the House GOP’s loudest anti-Trump holdouts and a reliable cheerleader for endless foreign entanglements — is now admitting he *nearly resigned* from Congress in protest over President Trump’s plan to end the disastrous Russo-Ukraine war.
Yes, rather than simply retiring at the end of his term, Bacon told Axios he momentarily considered quitting outright because Trump is trying to *stop a war* and bring peace to Europe. For a man who has built his brand around parroting Beltway neocon talking points, this meltdown was almost predictable — and not the least bit tragic for the America First movement.
Trump’s 28-point peace framework — a plan the legacy media pretends doesn’t exist — would end the bloodshed, protect Ukraine’s sovereignty, and force Russia into a U.S.-mediated nonaggression pact with its neighbors. It also contains guardrails on NATO’s eastward creep and restores a diplomatic channel between Russia and the alliance, mediated by Washington rather than Brussels bureaucrats.
In short: it’s a grown-up plan for a conflict the D.C. establishment insisted on treating like their latest forever war.
Perhaps the most telling detail is that Ukraine itself — including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — is largely on board. Despite the hysteria from Washington’s war-addicted class, Kyiv has accepted nearly all major components of Trump’s proposal. Zelenskyy even called the plan “doable” and asked for a meeting with the president to finalize it. Several of Russia’s more aggressive demands have already been negotiated out.
But for neocon Republicans, that’s precisely the problem. Peace — especially peace negotiated by Trump — is unacceptable. They’d prefer an endless, unwinnable, budget-draining conflict over an American-brokered settlement.
Enter Don Bacon, who erupted in anger and declared he was “so angry” about Trump’s peace initiative that he “thought about” resigning early. He even labeled it the “Witkoff Ukrainian surrender plan,” taking a swing at Trump’s foreign policy envoy Steve Witkoff while conveniently ignoring the fact that Ukraine itself is eager to move forward.
It’s an astonishing level of delusion: a congressman outraged not at war, but at the prospect of ending one.
Ultimately, Bacon claims he talked himself off the ledge, telling Axios he stayed because he has “a commitment to our constituents.” He also said he vented about the plan to Speaker Mike Johnson — though he insists he didn’t mention his brief flirtation with resignation.
If Bacon *did* resign, it would temporarily complicate the GOP’s already razor-thin majority. With Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepping down in January, Republicans will hold only 218 seats to Democrats’ 214, with four additional Democratic seats vacant. A Bacon departure would trigger a special election and leave the GOP vulnerable to procedural chaos.
Still, for many America First Republicans, Bacon’s potential resignation wouldn’t have been a loss — it would’ve been an upgrade. A Congress trying to restore peace abroad and sanity at home has no room for lawmakers whose biggest fear is the end of a foreign war.
Trump is delivering what Biden never could: a real path to peace. And if that sends a few neocon relics into retirement early, conservatives won’t lose any sleep over it.
