A growing contingent of House Republicans is voicing opposition to Donald Trump potentially deploying ground troops to the Persian Gulf, Politico reported Friday.As the deadline for Iran to respond to Trump’s 15-point peace plan approached Friday, the president was reportedly leaning toward ordering a ground operation in Iran. Some House Republicans urged the president to hold back.Arizona Representative Eli Crane, a former Navy Seal who served five deployments, told Politico that members of Congress and supporters had grown “very concerned.”“I’m really, really hopeful this doesn’t turn into a boots-on-the-ground situation,” he said. “My biggest concern this whole time is that this would turn into another long Middle Eastern war.“Though I don’t want to try and take away any of the president’s ability to carry out this operation, I know a lot of our supporters and a lot of members of Congress are very concerned” about the possibility, he added.“We lose 60 to 70 seats,” said another House Republican, who was granted anonymity by Politico, referring to November’s midterm elections.Wisconsin Representative Derrick Van Orden, also a retired Navy Seal, said that he’d been “very clear” that he doesn’t support a ground operation in Iran, and believes Trump has “learned” from past presidents who’d been trapped in forever wars. South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace said that she could break with Republicans to join the Democrat-led war powers measure next month. “If we’re in this phase where there are troops on the ground, then we’re in a different phase of the conflict, which requires Congress’s input,” Mace said.Earlier this week, the Pentagon ordered some 2,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne division, comprised of elite, rapid-response paratroopers, to be dispatched to aid the war effort in the Middle East, driving speculation that the U.S. military intends to seize Kharg Island, which handles 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein pushed back on the panic that a ground invasion of Iran is imminent in a report Thursday, arguing that the 82nd Airborne wasn’t an ideal group to lead a ground invasion and that U.S. military forces weren’t aligned for a major operation.