Over the weekend, President Donald Trump completely upended the global rules with an audacious “large-scale” strike against Venezuela, which led to the capture of its president Nicolás Maduro.
Trump ordered the attack and arrest in Caracas over the weekend as much of Washington was out of town for the Christmas holiday. Trump chose not to go through the normal protocol of asking for Congressional authorization, saying “Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers.” But aside from a few errant critics such as the retiring Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republicans largely blessed the attack.
Still, as much as the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio call the operation in Venezuela a law enforcement mission, it has all the trappings of a military operation, meaning this is strictly within the purview of Congress.
It doesn’t seem like the president or lawmakers seem to care that much.
The Constitution gives Congress – and only Congress – the power to declare war for a reason, though, over the years, it slowly surrendered its authority to the executive branch even before Trump. Congress notably did nothing after Trump conducted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. It did not rein in the Obama administration when it intervened in Libya to enforce a no-fly zone.
While Congress did pass an authorization of the use of military force after the September 11 terrorist attacks, that was not a formal declaration of war and it proved to be incredibly broad and gave the executive sweeping authority for America’s longest wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
So what comes next? PunchBowl News reported that Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi will brief Congressional leaders Monday evening.
That briefing is set to include the “Gang of Eight,” including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as well as the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
The chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and well as the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will also be briefed.
During a press call, Schumer told reporters over the weekend that the Senate would vote on a War Powers Act resolution this week. Passed in 1973 despite a veto from Richard Nixon, it was an attempt by Congress to claw back some of the power it ceded during the Vietnam War.
If a War Powers Act resolution passes, the president has to notify Congress 48 hours after he deploys forces if Congress has not declared war or authorized military action.
But this likely will not pass since Democrats have only 47 seats in the Senate and so far, only Sen. Rand Paul has crossed over from Republicans to support the legislation. And this comes without asking whether the Republican-controlled House would take up such a resolution.
The only real piece of leverage Democrats have to rein in Trump is the coming government funding deadline at the end of the month. But when The Independent asked Schumer about using that, he brushed off the question.
“January 30 is days away, let's first get all the facts out,” Schumer told The Independent Saturday. “That's what we're endeavoring to do right now, and our first ability to do that will be the War Powers Act of this week.”
And don’t expect any Republicans to take action. For years, they have opposed the communist regime in Venezuela ever since Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez came into power. In addition, Cuban and Venezuelan voters in South Florida, who overwhelmingly support Trump, will boost the president’s actions.
This also comes as Trump has increasingly neutered Congress’s authority in his second presidency. From government spending cuts to his “One Big, Beautiful Bill” to his bombing of Iran, Trump has effectively cut Congress out of the decision-making process.
The only way for any of this to change is for Republicans to reassert their authority. But as long as Johnson and Thune remain in power, that looks unlikely.
