War Powers Are Dead

A similar bill failed by a 49-51 vote in the Senate last month.

Why does the bill specify "Trump" and "Venezuela"? For the same reason that a similar bill in June specified "Trump" and "Iran." Democrats aren't serious about constitutional war powers. They're grandstanding.

After all, there's no need for any resolutions or bills. We already have Article I of the Constitution, which explicitly confers the power to declare war with Congress and no one else. There's no exemption for either party in the text.

We also have the War Powers Resolution.

In 1973, Congress, which still occasionally defended its constitutional role, overrode a President Richard Nixon veto and passed a law limiting the president's ability to use military force without congressional consent. The executive branch was now theoretically obliged to consult with Congress within 48 hours of an attack or as soon as there was imminent involvement. The ensuing military actions would be limited to 60 or 90 days, unless Congress authorized it.

Virtually every White House ignores it.

Presidents have been trying to circumvent Congress on the issue of war since President Thomas Jefferson sent the nascent American Navy to deal with Islamic pirates who were enslaving Americans and disrupting trade. Needless to say, war has only become more kinetic and complex since then, so presidents have been given lots of leeway to react to fluid situations.

All presidents, at least, felt the need to justify military action with a patina of constitutional reasoning.

Until 2011, that is, when then-President Barack Obama authorized military strikes on Libya's air defenses to protect Islamic rebels from attack.

Obama did something new: He informed Congress that authority for military action was derived from a mandate of the United Nations Security Council.

While most presidents circumvented the Constitution, the notion that an international organization, not to mention one with permanent seats for Communist China and totalitarian Russia, had any authority to dictate American military deployment was a direct attack on self-determination.

Partisans on both sides only pretend to care about war powers when it's convenient. Increasingly, this is a problem on all fronts of constitutional governance.

Now, Trump has a strong case to make for stemming the influx of illicit drugs coming from Latin America. The Justice Department reportedly told lawmakers that the president doesn't need congressional permission to destroy drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific because the strikes don't meet the definition of "hostilities." They argue that "narco-terrorists," a misnomer that's now popular on the Right, are using money from trafficking drugs to finance their war against the U.S. and its allies.

It is highly unlikely that narco-traffickers are interested in the geopolitical fortunes of the U.S. "Terrorism" has a precise definition, which entails the use of violence or threats of violence aimed at a civilian population or government to achieve political or ideological objectives. Drug smugglers are powerful criminals, occasionally supported by nation-states, who attack our sovereignty. But they aren't typically engaged in terrorism, even if that word is helpful in your legal and political arguments.

If there is a good case to be made for doing so, Congress should see the evidence. Because once guided missiles start making a regular appearance, we are engaged in real-world "hostilities."

And if a foreign nation is enabling or inciting the influx, it's completely reasonable for the U.S. to retaliate.

Trump has also threatened to close Venezuelan airspace — an act of war, reportedly telling the nation's strongman, Nicolas Maduro, to leave the country and allow for regime change. Now perhaps he's just trying to scare Maduro into curbing the narco-traffickers, or perhaps he means to destroy the country's production facilities and drug trafficking routes. Either would also be war.

Conflicts are messy and unpredictable, and they often cross administrations. If Trump wants open-ended permission to deal with Latin American drug cartels, he should go to Congress and let Democrats either vote it down or buy-in.

Not only would it be beneficial politically, but it would also reassert some semblance of constitutional order.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not living in a fantastical world where I believe any president will relinquish power. At this point, demanding politicians abide by constitutional norms is a lost cause.

But war powers? They're already dead. They've been dead for a long time.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 11/27/25: MTG Embodies the Inanity of Populism
• 11/14/25: Gaslighting Americans is latest Dem Disaster
• 11/11/25: Trump's Filibuster Nuke Would Hand Dems the Keys To Remake America
• 11/04/25: Let's Talk About the Real Genocide of Christians in Africa
• 10/16/25: Obamacare Is a Massive Failure. The GOP Shouldn't Bail It Out
• 10/10/25: Why Aren't 'Ceasefire Now!' Activists Celebrating Trump's Gaza Peace Deal?
• 09/12/25: Israel's Strike on Qatar Should Have Happened Years Ago
• 09/05/25: An Open Letter to My Esteemed Colleagues at the International Association of Genocide Scholars
• 08/29/25: The President Doesn't Get to Dictate How We Express Ourselves
• 08/22/25: Is Socialism as Popular as the Media Think?
• 08/15/25: Save the Little Sisters of the Poor!
• 08/08/25: RFK Jr.'s War on Vaccines and Public Health Continues
• 08/01/25: Europe's Recognition of 'Palestine' Is a Cynical Joke
• 07/18/25: Legacy Media Still Covering for Biden
• 06/27/25: Trump Learned the Lessons of Iraq
• 05/30/25: We Have No Constitutional or Moral Duty to Subsidize Harvard
• 05/30/25: Welcome to the Intifada, America
• 05/16/25: Scapegoating Biden Isn't Going to Solve the Dems' Problems
• 05/09/25: The Pulitzer Prizes Have Become a Sad Joke
• 05/05/25: How Do You Do, Fellow White People? Tim Walz Says Hello!
• 04/25/25: Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes a Powerful Argument for School Choice
• 04/18/25: If Everyone Is an Expert, No One Is
• 03/31/25: The Left's Imaginary COVID 'Reckoning'
• 03/21/25: Sorry, Conspiracy Theorists -- Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone
• 03/03/25: Mitch McConnell: A GOP Hall of Famer?
• 02/21/25: RFK's Dangerous Autism Lie
• 02/14/25: It's Time to End the EV Racket
• 02/07/25: If You Really Support Immigration, Stop Excusing Chaos
• 02/03/25: Trump's Gaza Proposal Makes Complete Sense
• 01/24/25: How Biden's Pardons Normalize Abuse of Power
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• 01/13/25: Why Javier Milei Matters
• 12/20/24: The Obama Doctrine Is Dead
• 12/13/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 12/09/24: It's time for a national conversation about left-wing violence
• 11/08/24: Don't Trash the Constitution to Dunk on the Libs
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• 11/01/24: HARRIS Is the Bigger Threat to the Constitutional Order
• 09/20/24: Fact checked! Harris Is the Extremist
• 07/13/24: Explain Yourself, Kamala Harris!
• 07/05/24: How Biden's Mental Decline Went From 'Misinformation' to Fact in a Week
• 04/12/24: Biden Is Now Chasing the 'Death to America' Voter
• 03/15/24: Turns Out Biden Lied About Hur, Beau, And Why He Pilfered Classified Docs
• 02/09/24: Why Biden Is Threatening to Veto Aid to Israel
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• 03/03/23: Questioning Biden's Ukraine Policy Doesn't Make You an 'Isolationist'
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• 03/25/22: No, School Boards Are Not 'Banning Books'
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• 01/28/22: It's Not Government's Job to 'Root Out' Misinformation
• 01/14/22: Biden's Big Elections Lie
• 01/07/22: Schumer's Ugly 'Voting Rights' Gamble
• 12/24/21:AOC's Grasp on American Governance Is a 'Farce'
• 12/17/21: Dems Pivot from Build Back Better to Useless Extremism
• 11/19/21: Reckoning' Over Steele Dossier?
• 10/15/21: The Biden White House Will Pay for Playing Inflation Games
• 09/24/21: The most demonstrable political scandal still ignored
• 09/17/21: Sorry, AOC, The Rich Already Pay Their Fair Share
• 09/02/21: Why Isn't Biden to Blame for COVID-19 Deaths?
• 08/06/21: Biden's Unprecedented Attack on the Constitution
• 07/30/21: Jan. 6 Was Deplorable. It Was NOT a Coup
• 06/21/21: The Myth of Republican Obstructionism
• 05/21/21: What Does Putin Have on Biden?
• 04/16/21: Kristen Clarke Is Unfit to Be in Government
• 03/26/21: No to DC Statehood is far from GOP being reflexive
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• 03/05/21: AOC's Terrible Minimum Wage Argument
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• 09/11/20: The Dems' Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election
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• 08/14/20: Kamala Harris, Imaginary Centrist
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• 05/28/20: The Folly of Twitter's Fact-Check
• 05/22/20: Dems Warning Trump Will Reject Election Results Should Look in the Mirror
• 05/15/20: Obamagate Is NOT a Conspiracy Theory
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