Yesterday, I wrote a column in the Hill discussing how Trump is unlikely to go to Congress in launching an attack on Iran and how he has history on his side in acting unilaterally. The column noted that many Democratic politicians and pundits who were supportive of such unilateral actions by Democratic presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are suddenly opposed to Trump using the same power. It is the Claude Rains School of Constitutional Law where politicians are “shocked, shocked” that Trump is using the authority that they accepted in Democratic predecessors.
Democratic members are calling for impeachment, while others are declaring the attacks unconstitutional. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is particularly shocked that Trump took the action and is calling for a vote under the War Powers Act.
Schumer insisted that “no president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has issued a similar statement.
Schumer is the same politician who was silent or supportive in earlier unilateral attacks by Democratic presidents. In 2011, Obama approved a massive military campaign against Libya. I represented a bipartisan group of members of Congress challenging that action. We were unsuccessful, as were such prior challenges.
I have long criticized the abandonment of the clear language of the Constitution on the declaration of wars. Only eleven such declarations have been made in our history. That has not happened since World War II in 1942. Over 125 military campaigns have spanned from Korea to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It is not a rule honored solely in the breach.
Democrats were supportive when Clinton launched cruise missile attacks under Operation Infinite Reach on two continents on August 20, 1998. He ordered attacks in locations in Khartoum, Sudan, and Khost Province, Afghanistan.
The War Powers Act has always been controversial and largely ineffectual. Presidents have long asserted the inherent powers to conduct such attacks under their Article II authority as the designated Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The WPA requires the President to inform Congress within 48 hours in a written notice to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate of the action.
The WPA further bars the use of armed forces in such a conflict for more than 60 days without congressional authorization for use of military force (AUMF) or a declaration of war by the United States. There is a further 30-day withdrawal period.
President Trump reportedly did immediately notify Congress after the attack under the WPA .
Presidents have routinely ignored the WPA when it limited their ability to conduct foreign military operations. In 1999, Clinton ignored the 60-day deadline and continued to bomb forces in Kosovo. His actions were also challenged, but the court in Campbell v. Clinton just shrugged off the violation and said it was a non-justiciable political question.
In responding to the current demands, Trump could look to a curious ally: Hillary Clinton.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for unilateral attacks during the Obama Administration. She dismissed the need to consult, let alone secure authorization, from Congress. In March 2011, Clinton testified that there was no need for such consultation and declared that the Administration would ignore a 60-day limit on unauthorized military actions.
Obama also defied the War Powers resolution on Syria. He actually did ask for congressional authorization to take military action in that country in 2013, but Congress refused to approve it. He did it anyway. Despite Congress expressly denying”authorization for the introduction of United States Armed Forces,” both Obama and Trump did precisely that.
Trump was wise to notify Congress. However, what occurs after that is anyone’s guess. The WPA and the AUMF have been paper tigers for decades and most in Congress wanted it that way. Politicians long ago abandoned their responsibilities to declare war. What remains has been little more than political theater.
Even under the WPA, Trump would have 60 days to prosecute this war and another 30 days to draw down forces without congressional approval. The court, in Campbell v. Clinton, noted that even if Clinton violated the WPA by continuing operations after the 60-day period, he was technically in compliance by withdrawing forces before the end of the 90-day period.
Trump could likely prosecute this campaign in 90 days. Indeed, if it goes beyond 90 days, we will likely be facing a potential global war with retaliatory strikes on both sides. In such an environment, it is very unlikely that Congress would withhold support for our ongoing operations.
In the meantime, the calls for impeachment are absurd given the prior actions of presidents in using this very authority. Once again, some Democrats appear intent on applying a different set of rules for impeaching Trump than any of his predecessors. Trump can cite both history and case law in allowing presidents to take such actions. At most, the line over war powers is murky. The Framers wanted impeachments to be based on bright-line rules in establishing high crimes and misdemeanors.
This is all part of the Claude Rains School of Constitutional Law. Members will once again express their shock and disgust in the use of the same authority that they once accepted in prior presidents. Trump has a great number of risks in this action from global military and economic consequences. The War Powers Act is not one of them if history is any measure.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and has both testified and litigated in the area of war powers, including the prior representation of members of Congress. He also testified in both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings.
N.B.: A slightly different version of this column ran on Fox.com
September 27, 2024
If I’m elected President, the war with Russia and Ukraine will end quickly. If not, that war will never end, and will phase into WORLD WAR III. Comrade Harris will NEVER BE ABLE TO END THE WAR, and hasn’t. Nothing will change except THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION WILL ONLY GET WORSE! MAGA2024
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113210767176129110
Who is holding back on peace in Ukraine. Not Prez Trump you dummy
Democrats are not the only ones saying that Trump’s actions are unconstitutional. So is Ron Paul’s organization. Article II of the Constitution DOES NOT give presidents the authority to launch military actions. Presidents have claimed it and politicians have let them get away with it.
Ooh, Ron Paul, that will show Trump. Ron Paul probably thinks the military should be privatized.
I agree with Paul – but SCOTUS does not, and most of congress does not – atleast not when it is democrats acting.
I am not going to whig out Because Trump did not do what myriads of presidents before him did not do.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by *the world’s number one state sponsor of terror*,” said Trump. (Emphasis added.)
If that is *not* a righteous use of America’s military, then there is no such thing.
How on the one hand does a man like Schumer support the bombing of Middle East nations by Clinton and on the other hand condemn the bombings by Trump. I’m trying to find the words that describe Chuck Schumer and AOC but I would have to go to the depths of hell to find the proper illustrations. Possibly the Lord of The flies could be of assistance in describing the self-hating Jew. Possibly the two muslims, Obama and the Ayatollah could also join right in.
Schumer and the Democrats keep falling into Trump’s plot to make them adopt every single 80/20 issue on the side of the 20. It is amazing to watch. Here we have Schumer, the Jewish “Lion of the Senate” attacking Trump for taking out the nukes that would destroy Israel in 10 minutes and us in 60. Schumer loved being admired as the top elected Jewish politician in the country and now he is against an issue that has 99% support in Israel and 80% support here. All because he is worried about losing his seat to a Jew hating little ex bartender.
Whirlwind Schumer reveals himself for what he is. A corrupt and aging two bit politician who, like so many NFL stars in the past, has no idea when his time of usefulness is over. In his case not his athletic prowess, rather the number of active brain cells he has left. Even if you’re a Maoist Socialist like the AOC Barfly you have to admit, at this point he is nothing more than a dog mess on the carpet.
In typical Schumer fashion his statements in response to this, are to issue bellicose threats against the “American” President without showing a minutia of concern about the safety of our military personnel, either those engaged in the strike or those in the region. He shows no concern for the safety of American citizens in the United States from either a nuclear armed Iran, or a nuclear material Iran (being the difference between mounting a warhead on a 2000 km missile, or proliferating nuclear material amongst their terrorist organizations around the globe to build and plant nuclear dirty bombs along the avenue’s), and he bestows no concern at all for the security levels in his own country which may be hampered or complicated by their Democrat Socialist Red Guards he has turned loose in the streets of our major cities, funded in part by billionaire CCP oligarchs and Marxist globalists, who’s hand actively feeds his Democrat Socialists party and which he otherwise fears to bite.
-Oddball
July 26, 2024
“If we win, it’ll be very simple. It’s all going to work out and very quickly,” Trump told reporters at the start of the meeting. “If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a third world war. You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the second world war. You’ve never been so close, because we have incompetent people running our country.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4794793-trump-netanyahu-world-war-november-mar-a-lago-harris-biden/
He was so right. Biden the fool was in charge
October 1, 2024
“If I win, we will have peace in the world again. I guarantee we will have peace in the world again,” Trump added. “And if Kamala gets four more — unthinkable, right? — if she gets four more years, the world goes up in smoke.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4910232-trump-biden-harris-iranian-attack/
November 5, 2024
Former US president Donald Trump claims Vice President Kamala Harris will “invade the Middle East,” as he makes a final appeal to Arab and Muslim voters as he seeks their support to win in the swing state of Michigan on the eve of the election.
“We are building the biggest and broadest coalition in American political history. This includes record-breaking numbers of Arab and Muslim Voters in Michigan who want PEACE,” Trump writes on X.
“They know Kamala and her warmonger Cabinet will invade the Middle East, get millions of Muslims killed and start World War III,” he adds, pledging to “BRING BACK PEACE!”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-claims-harris-will-invade-the-middle-east-in-final-appeal-to-arab-voters/
Oh shaw. All that cash that Obama provided to build the Iranian nuclear facilities has gone up in smoke. Obama will soon respond with a new book entitled The Art of No Deal. The history of America is replete with examples of bad characters that could not be negotiated with. Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Floyd and Baby Faced Nelson to name just a few. On the international stage others who could and can’t be negotiated with have included such luminaries as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once it was understood that characters such as Bonnie and Clyde could not be negotiated with their bank robbery car was made to look like Swiss Cheese. Rightly so.
Think.
Nice response.
Although the subject of this column is the hypocrisy of Democratic leaders, the larger problem is the lack of control of Presidents. If their actions drag into a war, Presidents are in effect declaring war unilaterally. The attack on Iran is unquestionably an act of war. The Iranians are justified in declaring war against us. What we have done is as much an act of war as Pearl Harbor.
edwardmahl posted The attack on Iran is unquestionably an act of war. The Iranians are justified in declaring war against us.
The Iranians (more specifically, The Mad Mullahs subjugating that Persian country with their Republican Guard) have been butchering and maiming Americans ever since the Mad Mullahs subjugated that country. Doing so through the terrorist organizations they use as their weapons or others like bin Ladin that they provide with expertise and resources.
And then there’s the THOUSANDS of American troops both slaughtered and maimed for life by advanced Iranian IEDs that their Quds Force supplied to the Afghanistan hajjis, along with technical and tactical training on how use them to kill Americans and other Coalition troops.
All of this done while Iran’s leaders howled their vow of “Death To America”, planned attempts to murder members of the Executive Branch and the president himself.
How many dead Americans at the hands of Iranian terrorism does it take before denialists like you say that what Iran has been doing for years “is as much an act of war as Pearl Harbour”???
The primary purpose of the president is to protect Americans and America from enemies. Not to engage in featherbrained discussions about control of power after watching YEARS of presidents doing nothing (worse, enriching and empowering Iran) while watching Iran butchering Americans and working to get a nuclear weapon.
In your world, when should the president act?
Only after Iran successfully puts a nuke in the hands of terrorists with the ability to get it into the interior of America – or into American airspace on a private aircraft, above a major American city?
We are indeed our own worst enemy with thinking like this.
Edward, where have you been? The Iranians have declared war on the great satan other wise known as America long ago. They declared Israel the little satan and America the big satan in publicly made statements on many occasions. Over and over again they have made their promises whole through attacks on both Israel and America. Just ask Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Given their history do you really think that they would hesitate to use a nuclear weapon on their most hated enemies? Are you that naive?
“The attack on Iran is unquestionably an act of war.”
You are seriously confused about who the aggressor is. For starters, see Iran’s proxy invasion of Israel (9/7/23), and its kidnapping and murder of innocent Israelis and Americans.
That well known leftist, Marxist, Islamic sympathiser Marjorie Taylor Greene has some thoughts.
Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war.
There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first.
Israel is a nuclear armed nation.
This is not our fight.
Peace is the answer.
https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1936564082477531596
The Democrats New Hitler Youth Movement is heard from, supporting their fellow genocidal anti-Semitics: There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first.
Sonny, many of us here are old enough to remember Iran funding, arming, training and coordinating their terrorist proxies to launch attacks on Israel – starting many years before Netanyahu was in power. If you claim that Iran’s actions in the Oct 7th slaughter targeting civilians in Israel doesn’t count as an attack and that Israel attacked first because they used bombs instead of missiles as Iran did after that attack, go ahead and see how far you get with that.
Oh dear! Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis may suddenly have some supply chain problems while carrying out Iran’s orders to do their best to successfully finish Hitler’s Final Solution. And all those nuclear facilities built with the cash Obama gave them in a manner similar to how Mexican drug cartels move money is probably destroyed – money now wasted.
The Democrats endorsement of Iran finishing Hitler’s Final Solution is suddenly in danger!
This is not our fight.
The thousands of Americans butchered and maimed by Iran controlled terrorists and soldiers killed by advanced Iranian IEDS, supplied along with training to the Afghanistan hajjis is just a misunderstanding? The repeated vows of “Death To America” you see as just a misunderstanding?
This is why the words “Democrat Useful Idiot” are just as accurate today as they were a century ago.
That comment about “peace is the answer” is a verbatim comment from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Did you read the link I provided ??????
ATS – republicans are capable of disagreeing over policy choices without starting a civil war in the party.
MTG and Paul and others are right about what our founders intended.
But Trump is acting is excercising military powers that SCOTUS has said that he has.
I am also not stupid – this could prove to have been a collasal blunder.
It also could prove to be the act that stabalizes the mideast, restores peace in Ukraine and causes China to quit saber rattling regarding Taiwan.
If as an example the Iranian regime collapses in the next 6 months (or 6 days) the ripple effects will be tremendously good.
Conversely if Fordow was not completely destroyed, if the IRGC can get in and remove enough enriched uranium for a dierty bomb and smuggle that to terroists.
This could prove a monumental bad mistake.
We elect presidents to make decisions like this.
And that is why the majority of americans wanted Trump not Biden or Harris making these decision.
The Left asserts that Trump’s bombing could “provoke” Iran to (further) attacks.
That is a grotesquely delusional view.
The only provocation Iran needs (and has needed for some 40 years) is the existence of Western civilization — of which Israel and America are its greatest symbols.
This is one of Dr Turley’s best!
Stay alert to see if Iranian people become free! If this happens it could be further proof that we’re near Christ’s return based on Jeremiah 49:39, which talks about God restoring the fortunes of Elam in the last days! Google will tell you Elam is the historic name of the region in SW Iran! FYI, Isaac Newton believed he would establish his kingdom in our current century!
Folks, wacko alert… wacko alert…
In 2016 I voted for Trump to keep Hillary out of the office. Even so, I always thought he was just an unfunny clown unfit to be President. Now, he’s proved it to me. A world of 8.2 billion people needs problem solvers, not money, power and war mongers. Anecdotally, I expect another 5,000 to 6,000 Americans to die prematurely today of cheaply and easily prevented chronic diseases due to mainstream medicine ignorance and incompetence and FDA approved food poisoning, for higher Big Food, Big Med and Big Pharma profits. Those are the real threats to most Americans. Anecdotally, too, isn’t Israel nothing but an “establishment of religion,” respective of the First Amendment? With “Over 125 military campaigns have spanned from Korea to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.” and about 30 million premature American deaths just since 1980 to credit to bipartisan unconstitutional government, is not the US the real world leader in both domestic and international terrorism? CGS
YAWN….
All boaster and no proof.
Another wacko…
:-/ The objections you raise are not germane to the specific issue at hand: did you even read the article before posting?
“unfunny clown” — if you can manage civility and stop with the affronts, you might begin to have adult conversations about serious issues.
Diana, anonymous and Dustoff, the issue is, I believe (in declining order), the threat Iran poses to the world, to Israel and to America. Yes, Diana, I read the article and even quoted some of it. With JT’s blog not being the best place to present my more astute and comprehensive findings to the public, I’m simply trying to do what I can with what little resources left to me (minimally, among tens of millions of us) after sixty-three adult years of being abused, betrayed, injured, made ill and overtaxed by an unconstitutional ‘government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.’ Without my kind of input JT’s blog is really nothing more than a political gossip column. More disease details at: https://odysee.com/@charlesgshaver:d?view=about
All right, a reasonable attempt at bi-partisan dialogue can be achieved when there is a civil approach …. I agree, there IS evidence of a “medical conspiracy against Americans [particularly obvious with the so-called “pandemic” and the SARS-COV2 mandated injections], AND there is indeed plenty of evidence of a “slow poisoning” of the food supply. And clearly, death, (culling of the world’s populations) by any means, includes war.
Though I’m not speaking for anyone else, but myself, I can say that most of us who are conservatives (in spirit and in truth) are saddened by the new prospect of war and the quite-possible retaliations that may occur on our soil, a threat virtually guaranteed by the Biden Administration’s illegal open-borders policy….But yes, I took the President’s promises of “no new wars” seriously and wholly believed in them, so the June-21 surprise had to hurt….
BUT, when “done is done,” the best we can do is stand strong against the blowback (to put it mildly), and stand as Americans in solidarity against Iran, this theocracy’s state-sponsored terrorism, which has been most brutally perpetrated right inside their own borders, against their own citizens, especially women and Christians.
So, most of us know that Islam is not a religion of peace; it was never established that way, and its existential goals remain the same: to establish world dominance via conquest by any means, from religion-sanctioned lying thus duplicitous agreements, to sheer numbers of mostly-false claims of “asylum,” invasions in other countries and cultures, to the moral support of rape culture, to the funding of suicide bombers and encouragements of public knifings and behaeadings. This rogue regime was in dire need of a brutal correction….and yet, we didn’t want war. This is a time for sadness and prayer [sack cloth and ashes].
Thank you, Dianna, for a very heartfelt and thought provoking reply. About the best I can come up with for you, for now, is to state I hope none of our worst fears are realized. This reply will probably be the last one I’m allowed on JT’s blog in this discussion. Thanks for ‘hearing’ me. Be safe; be well.
Yet Schumer, Jeffries, et al. (and there are numereous Democrat et als) and their media sycophants have no Constitutional nor other objection to billion$ in “aid” to Ukraine (i.e., to US defense contractors), nor to Ukrainian (officially “Ukrainian”) strikes into Russian Federation territory, indeed praise them. OK, not direct strikes by the US military, but query what their reaction would have been if Biden had ordered that.
I’m more concerned with the damage that the democrats allowed for four years right here at home. Bombs were dropped in Iran yesterday but when will those who were allowed entry by democrats drop their bombs here at home? For a week now illegals riot, attack law enforcement, wave the flags of the country they belong in and democrats support them. You want to impeach, well impeach AOC, Omar, Shumer, Pelosi, Ro Kana and every activist judge standing in the way of deporting the threats right here at home.
This should have been called Operation FAFO, perfectly executed.
Love it…
Iran’s Islamic regime has funded the killing of Jews for 46 years and danced in the streets (literally) after the slaughter of concert goers after the attack of October 7th. That Democrats go into a high-speed wobble that the United States has prevented this Jew-killing regime from having a nuclear weapon speaks volumes Olly. Greg
The Iranian regime is responsible for hundreds of American deaths and has never been held accountable with an inkind response.
The peremptory strike ordered by Trump, while to some controversial or “unconstitutional” and even “impeachable”, may have instead played a crucial role in preventing the outbreak of WW III. A compelling argument can be made that, had Iran accomplished its goal of lobbing one (or more) nuclear-tipped missiles into Israel, rest assured, WW III would have ensued before the mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv had dissipated.
Nonsense.
If, G-d forbid, the Iranians do proceed to turn their agents loose all around the globe and we find that there are operational terrorist cells already ensconced within our borders, will these photo-op dems then admit that it was their policies and their administration that allowed this to reach such a critical point. I would wager that most of the world, including much of the middle east is breathing a sigh of relief at this point that someone, finally, took the move to remove a theocracy whose only path was to annihilate the infidels until a global caliphate was achieved.
Plus the middle East would be a fall out area.
On using constitutional grounds to complain and using District judges to rule arbitrarily against everything Trump does, the Democrats have diminished the strength of their every case. In this judicial fog, Trump has been freed him to act as appropriate. In fact, he essentially has more power than he would otherwise.
I don’t get it. Remember when Reagan Bombed Libya. I don’t recall them complaining then….
Don’t get it? Different times.
I would imagine that this strike against an islamist nation is really no different from the ones used by such Presidents as Jefferson when he created the Marines to unilaterally destroy the Barbary Pirates who boarded our private ships and enslaved their crews, the Clinton’s use of missiles, the obama use of missiles, etc. Why do lefties always insist on proving their hypocrisy?
Don’t get it? Different times.
Still “different times” when it was Obama that struck Libya, instead of Reagan? How many years ago was that?
Well…wait a minute! The Oval Office House Plant struck Syria, not Libya about a year and a half ago after Iran’s proxies killed three American soldiers in Jordan.
Still don’t get it? Still “different times”?
Have you forgotten the history of hypocrisy that runs deep down the center of every democrat?
Sooner or later the public will notice that behind a hypocritical screen of fake concern for the Constitution, the far Left of the Democrat party is fighting very hard for one of our greatest enemies, and a sponsor of worldwide terror, to have Nuclear bombs. A group of America-haters trying to protect and empower the greatest America-hater of them all. The party is about to split into fragments.
No, they’re pretty much all in the same mud bath. The majority of them really don’t like America. Example: Pelosi wished her grandkids had dark melanin as if that made them super virtuous.
With Godspeed I hope.