President Donald Trump’s strike in opposition to Iran can be met with pushback on Capitol Hill this week as some lawmakers argue the army motion used to be unconstitutional.
There are a number of bipartisan resolutions that would obtain a vote in coming days that can put some lawmakers in uncomfortable positions as they believe whether or not Trump overlooked the position of Congress in putting Tehran.
It is not going regardless that, at this degree, that Trump’s rank-and-file Republican base will widely abandon him by way of supporting those expenses. If any have been to make it to Trump’s table, there most probably would not be sufficient votes to override his veto.
“I don’t believe this is an acceptable time for a struggle powers solution, and I don’t believe it is essential,” Space Speaker Mike Johnson informed journalists Monday afternoon on the Capitol.
Fears of escalation ramped up on Monday as Iran retaliated in opposition to the U.S. with a missile assault on a U.S. army base in Qatar. The missiles have been intercepted and there have been no fast reviews of casualties on the base, in keeping with U.S. officers.
Johnson stated it is as much as Trump whether or not the US responds to Iran’s try to retaliate on Monday.
“The president warned them to not retaliate, however he used to be additionally very transparent that the specter of Iran acquiring nuclear capacity is a danger no longer simply to Israel and the Center East, however to the US as neatly. They have got been very transparent about their intentions and what kind of they hate us,” Johnson stated. “The president made an analysis that the risk used to be forthcoming sufficient to take his authority as commander in leader.”
Other folks hang indicators as they exhibit in entrance of the White Space in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2025 in opposition to US moves on Iranian nuclear websites.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP by means of Getty Photographs
Trump’s choice to hit Iran within the mentioned intention of wiping out its nuclear features follows a decades-long trend of presidents taking army motion and no longer looking forward to Congress to log out. Different examples come with Joe Biden’s airstrikes in Syria in 2021, Barack Obama’s army marketing campaign in opposition to ISIS in Syria and Iraq in addition to George H.W. Bush’s invasion of Panama.
Space and Senate lawmakers are anticipated to obtain briefings at the Iran strike on Tuesday.
Trump faces bipartisan blowback
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna presented a Warfare Powers Answer final week to ban “United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities within the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is main a equivalent Senate solution, which might arise someday this week because the chamber tries to transport ahead with a megabill to fund a lot of Trump’s home coverage schedule.
All 3 seemed on “Face the Country” on CBS Information on Sunday to make their case.
Massie contended there used to be “no forthcoming danger to the US” that will authorize the president to strike Iran with out congressional approval.
Kaine in a similar fashion stated: “That is the U.S. leaping right into a struggle of selection at Donald Trump’s urging with none compelling nationwide safety pursuits for the US to behave on this approach, in particular with no debate and vote in Congress. We must no longer be sending troops and risking troops’ lives in an offensive struggle with no debate in Congress.”
Kaine added that he hopes Republicans chase away.
“I do know many Republicans will fall in line and say a president can do no matter he needs. However I am hoping participants of the Senate and the Space will take their Article I duties critically,” the Virginia Democrat stated.
Rep. Thomas Massie leaves a Space Republican caucus assembly on the U.S. Capitol on June 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. | Sen. Tim Kaine arrives for a listening to with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon finances and the disaster between Iran and Israel, on the Capitol in Washington, June 18, 2025.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs | J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Khanna warned there’s a chance the strike isn’t a one-time incidence.
“There are individuals who need regime trade in Iran. And they’re egging this president directly to bomb. I am hoping cooler heads will be triumphant,” Khanna stated on CBS. “We wish to go Thomas Massie and my Warfare Powers Answer to make it transparent that we are not going to get additional entrenched into the Center East.”
Trump lashed out at Massie in a long social media publish on Sunday, writing the Republican congressman is “no longer MAGA” and that “MAGA does not need him” and “does not appreciate him.” Trump stated he will marketing campaign for Massie’s Republican number one opponent within the subsequent election.
Congress has two times earlier than known as out Trump on his use of army power with out congressional approval.
In 2019, Congress licensed a invoice to finish U.S. give a boost to for the struggle in Yemen, which Trump vetoed. In 2020, Trump ordered the drone strike that killed best Iranian basic Qassem Soleimani. In reaction, Congress handed law in the hunt for to restrict a president’s talent to salary struggle in opposition to Iran, which used to be once more temporarily rejected by way of Trump.
What’s the 1973 Warfare Powers Answer?
The law presented by way of Massie and Khanna in the hunt for to restrict Trump’s talent to take U.S. army motion in opposition to Iran cites the 1973 Warfare Powers Answer, which states that the president “in each and every imaginable example shall talk over with Congress earlier than introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into scenario the place forthcoming involvement in hostilities is obviously indicated by way of the instances.”
It additionally states that within the absence of a declaration of struggle but if military are presented, the president will have to report back to Congress inside 48 hours the instances necessitating their creation and will have to terminate the usage of U.S. military inside 60 days except Congress allows in a different way. If approval isn’t granted and the president deems it an emergency, then an extra 30 days are granted for finishing operations.
Trump admin says strike used to be legally justified
Most sensible officers defended the army motion over the weekend. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the management “complied with the notification necessities” of the Warfare Powers Answer, announcing participants of Congress have been notified “after the planes have been safely out.”
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio additionally sought to emphasise the U.S. isn’t at struggle with Iran.
Trump, regardless that, warned that extra moves may just come if Iran does not negotiate a deal.
“If peace does no longer come temporarily, we can move after the ones different goals with precision, velocity and talent,” he stated in his deal with to the country on Saturday evening.
Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) take a seat within the Scenario Room as they track the project that took out 3 Iranian nuclear enrichment websites, on the White Space on June 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Daniel Torok/The White Space by means of Getty Photographs
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a vocal supporter of army motion in opposition to Iran main as much as Trump’s choice, argued on NBC Information that Trump has the entire authority he wishes beneath Article II of the Charter.
“Congress can claim struggle or bring to an end investment,” Graham stated. “We will’t be the commander in leader. You’ll’t have 535 commanders-in-chief.”
The management may just additionally cite an present army authorization as grounds for criminal justification for putting in opposition to Iran.
The 2001 Authorization for Use of Army Pressure (AUMF) is a joint solution handed by way of Congress that licensed counterterrorism operations by way of U.S. army forces in opposition to the ones chargeable for the 9/11 assaults. Congress handed some other AUMF focused on Iraq in 2002. Each have since been cited to authorize army power in additional than 20 nations, together with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia because of the extensive language within the resolutions.
Critics have frequently stated the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs grant the president powers to unilaterally salary “perpetual international wars” and a few lawmakers were prepared to repeal it — however the ones efforts have all been unsuccessful.
ABC Information’ John Parkinson contributed to this document.
