The Donald Trump administration is doubling down on its Iraq pressure campaign, threatening to impose devastating sanctions on the fragile country should Baghdad move forward with its threats to expel US forces. And the policy has buy-in from key Republican lawmakers, who are in no hurry to push back against the president’s sanctions threats.

After the Iraqi parliament approved a nonbinding resolution Jan. 5 that called on all foreign forces to leave the country in the wake of the Jan. 3 assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Trump threatened to “charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before.” Trump threatened not to withdraw US forces — regardless of Baghdad’s wishes — until Iraq pays the United States for an “extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there.”

Shortly after the president’s initial threat, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., a key Trump ally, told Al-Monitor that he would “defer to his [Trump's] judgment.”

“We know what we want Iraq to do, and that might be a worthwhile step,” said Inhofe.