Hours after the U.S. bombed several sites in Iran, President Donald Trump called the operation a "spectacular military success."
Whether or not that turns out to be true, the attack looks rather different as a legal matter. Trump appears to have significantly overstepped his authority, as the attack was not authorized by Congress and was not in response to an attack on American soil or American troops. The best the White House has been able to come up with so far is that Trump acted under the legal authority "afforded to him as Commander in Chief," as a White House official told Real Clear Politics on Saturday night.
Sorry, but that simply isn't good enough.
