Democratic party leaders have vowed to renew the effort to curb Donald Trump’s war in Iran next week after several days of escalating tactics that culminated in a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday evening.
In recent months, several war powers resolutions have failed in Congress after a handful of Democrats continued to vote alongside Republicans. But Trump’s aggressive overtures this week – including a Truth Social post that said “a whole civilization” could be wiped out if Iran didn’t agree to demands, have pushed some to act.
“We need a permanent end to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, on CNN shortly after Trump announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday. “House Democrats have demanded that Speaker Mike Johnson immediately reconvene the House back into session so we can move a war powers resolution that will end this conflict permanently.”
In a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said Democrats in the upper chamber would force a vote when Congress returns from recess next week. “This war has made us worse off today than before it started,” he said, noting the cost of the war and the effect on gas prices. “This is one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions that the United States has ever taken.”
Meanwhile, more than 70 Democrats are calling for the 25th amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office after his Truth Social post on Tuesday, and an expletive-filled post on Easter Sunday.
The outburst raised questions about the president’s mental health, and also spurred grave concerns about whether he would follow through on his threats to bomb Iran’s critical infrastructure – which would amount to war crimes under international law.
Some lawmakers have called for his cabinet to invoke the amendment to declare him unfit for office, others have called for his impeachment and conviction – and some have called for both.
Senator Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, told CNN on Tuesday: “No president in control of his senses would publicly promise to eradicate an entire civilization.
“Trump seems to be taking us on a path to mass war crimes. That’s a path we cannot accept,” he added.
“We need to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump,” Ro Khanna, a representative of California, wrote on Tuesday on X. “Threatening war crimes is a blatant violation of our constitution and the Geneva Conventions.”
Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic representative from Washington state, said that while she was “relieved Trump did not destroy an entire civilization last night” his “unhinged threat and illegal war make it clear he is unfit to serve as president”.
Trump’s threat outraged even those who formerly made up his core Maga base, including former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, and rightwing commentators and conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Candace Owens.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!!” Greene, a staunch Trump ally turned critic, posted on X. “Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”
A handful of Republican lawmakers also expressed unease with threats to strike civilian targets, but the party has largely remained silent.
