5 GOPers cross party lines as Senate advances war powers resolution restraining Trump in Venezuela

nypost.com ^ | Jan. 8, 2026 | By Ryan King

[V_TWIN]

WASHINGTON — The Senate advanced a resolution Thursday to block President Trump from taking additional military action in Venezuela, just five days after the capture of Caracas strongman Nicolas Maduro.

In a 52-47 vote, the upper chamber agreed to consider a so-called “War Powers resolution” to force Trump to end hostilities toward the South American nation, in a blow to the administration.

The measure must still clear the Senate and House to take effect

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: adamschiff; alaska; california; chuckschumer; cinos; indiana; joshhawley; kentucky; lisamurkowski; maine; missouri; narcoterrorism; newyork; peaceprezwantswar; randpaul; randpaulronpaul; randpaulsucks; rinos; susancollins; tds; timkaine; toddyoung; trendearagua; trump; venezuela; virginia; vladimirpadrinolopez

[V_TWIN]

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Rand paul.....what a pizza chit

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[1ScrappyArmyMom]

How will they stop Trump?

[CedarDave]

The usual three plus two more:

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Todd Young of Indiana.

[Nervous Tick]

Won’t get cloture.

[SmokingJoe]

Only to fail in the House?
Yup.
Waste of time.

[aquila48]

It’s a resolution not a bill, so not much weight. Basically an opinion.

[avital2]

ust how is this “War,” geniuses? that is low-IQ Dem-type “think.” oy.

[pepsi_junkie]

They don't want Trump to succeed at anything. They are slow rolling his appointments, made him fight like hell to get the only bill he asked for through (though GOP helped Biden get all of his crappy ones through and all his nominees too).

Pay attention, gang. They are not who they say they are and they will always be ready to supply enough votes to make sure that the dems get to really control the agenda in general and to stymie Trump in particular.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Josh Hawley never can resist a camera or a microphone.

Honestly, I liked him better when he was on Hee-Haw.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Todd Young is the quintessential "Todd".

[Highest Authority]

Check all of their income sources! Did Trump cut some off?

[9YearLurker]

Trump could veto, no?

[TexasGator]

My bad. It is only a resolution.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Rand Paul has been funded by Maduro in Venezuela

[ansel12]

This is the worst moment to be weakening Trump’s negotiating position, just as he is trying to break up logjams and long stale status quos that needed refreshing and new angles.

[LastDayz]

F’n RINO’s..... can always be counted on to throw a monkey wrench into the works.

[faithhopecharity]

so far, the Venezuela action looks very promising (and was carried out excellently from the reports)

it might even help slow the smuggling of killer-drugs into USA, something we desperately need to achieve

we will see.
right now, I believe these five GOP-E votes were, at the least, premature

[Political Junkie Too]

There is no such concept of "war powers" in the Constitution as relates to the President's Article II powers as Commander-in-Chief.

The are only two "war powers" in the Constitution:

1. Article I Section 8 Clause 11 power of Congress "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;"

2. Article I Section 10 Clause 4 power of Congress that "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress... engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay."

That's it. Congress can declare war, and Congress can approve states engaging in war.

The President, as Commander-in-Chief, has Article II Section 2 plenary powers to use the military as he wishes. He doesn't need the permission of Congress, or else we'd have a Congress-in-Chief where the President becomes a lesser officer.

Congress can declare war, but that doesn't obligate the Commander-in-Chief to wage that war, either. The President could choose to use diplomacy to de-escalate tensions and never act on Congress' declaration of war.

The Article I Section 8 power of Congress to "declare war" is not a check on the President's power to use the military. The proper check is the Article I Section 8 Clause 12 power:

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

The power of Congress to defund the army was the check on an adventurous President who is misusing the military. A president has a two-year window to use the military before Congress must reauthorize the funding for the military for another two years.

That is how Congress oversees the president's use of military power.

-PJ

[Nervous Tick]

>> It is only a resolution.

Thanks for pointing that out! I didn’t notice.

[frog in a pot]

...a so-called “War Powers resolution” to force Trump to end hostilities toward the South American nation...

Typical leftist slant that too many of our fellow citizens will miss. It is Trump who is ending the hostile actions directed against U.S. citizens by that South American nation.

The way things are going in some of our states, we can expect the day when Red states will throw away their convenient, self-serving "Blue state" label and proudly proclaim they are indeed Red states.