Posted on 11/01/2025 7:05:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Some members of Congress are up in arms over a briefing by a senior administration lawyer who told them the Trump administration had no intention of adhering to the War Powers Resolution regarding the ongoing interdiction campaign against Venezuelan drug cartels. According to the Washington Post, T. Elliot Gaiser, head of the Trump administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, said the administration did not believe the strikes met the definition of hostilities under the law and did not intend to seek an extension of the deadline nor Congress’s approval of ongoing action.
Heads popped. “The administration appears to be blowing through the 60-day limit,” said a senior congressional aide
I really have no idea who Finucane is when he's up and has his trousers on, but he seems to have some degree of self-importance, at least.
Not to be undone, some weaker Republicans also had to get in on the show.
Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined in a rare bipartisan rebuke the same day. He and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), made public two letters they both had sent to the Pentagon weeks before, requesting legal documents, attack orders and a list of targets. The Defense Department, they wrote, had exceeded the amount of time required by law to provide some of the materials.
Let's be clear. The War Powers Resolution is a joke. It is facially unconstitutional from its premise that Congress is the super-duper commander-in-chief of the armed forces when it claims "The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." That has not been true since President George Washington sent the U.S. Army and Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmer to run the Indians out of the Northwest Territories.
The law was imposed on a scandal-weakened Richard Nixon, and since that time, both presidents and Congress have pretended it has the force of law. A president has invoked it on only one occasion. President Gerald Ford did so on May 15, 1975, in conjunction with the SS Mayaguez Incident, and the subsequent U.S. Marines assaulted Koh Tang Island. It was not complied with for the invasions of Grenada and Panama, or the intervention in Yugoslavia.
Congress has used the War Powers Resolution twice to force an end to combat. Both times, the president was very happy to go along with the fiction that Congress had ended the conflict. The first time was the end of U.S. involvement under President Reagan in Lebanon in 1983. Reagan signed the War Powers Resolution limiting U.S. involvement to 18 months, but he did so saying, "while he agreed with the resolution to authorize force, he could not 'cede any of the authority vested in me under the Constitution as President and as Commander in Chief of United States Armed Forces'."
The second time was getting Bill Clinton out of Somalia in 1995. Notably, in conjunction wth Clinton sending troops to Haiti, he said, “[l]ike my predecessors of both parties, I have not agreed that I was constitutionally mandated to get” congressional approval for a military action.
Congress tried to use the War Powers Resolution to force President Trump to end involvement in Yemen and Iran; President Trump vetoed both resolutions (here | here).
The bottom line here is that presidents of all parties have ignored the War Powers Resolution except when it was politically advantageous to pay attention to it. Trump stiff-arming his political enemies is not the same as breaking an unenforceable law. The War Powers Resolution isn't used because it is virtually impossible to force a president who opposes it to go along with it. The commander-in-chief does not answer to Congress on military operations. If Congress objects, then it can stop funding the operation. Finally, the War Powers Resolution is blatantly, facially unconstitutional. Everyone knows that, and the reason no one in Congress has ever sued to have it enforced is that they know how that movie ends.
Given everything about the issue, one really wonders why the Democrats are going after Trump so hard to leave the drug cartels alone when, by all accounts, it is overwhelmingly popular. I mean, unless money was involved somehow.
Poll: 71% of Americans support Trump's strikes on boats smuggling drugs https://t.co/UDOT20FyCM— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) October 10, 2025
On this issue, I think President Trump is right on two major points. First, there are no "imminent hostilities." Second, the law does not imagine a conflict taking place in international waters:
1) into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances;
(2) into the territory, airspace or waters of a foreign nation, while equipped for combat, except for deployments which relate solely to supply, replacement, repair, or training of such forces; or
(3) in numbers which substantially enlarge United States Armed Forces equipped for combat already located in a foreign nation;
If any of the people whinging about this subject are that upset, they can introduce a resolution, pass it through both the Senate and the House, have President Trump veto it, and then override his veto. The last thing President Trump should do is cede any executive power to this collection of nincompoops who really don't care if Americans get killed, but they care a great deal about damaging President Trump.
All Trump has to do to notify Congress is call Speaker Johnson up and tell him. It’s up to Johnson if he wants to tell anybody else...............
Don’t get in the drug boat, and you may see another day. Simple. 🤓
The Beltway bureaucrats loves their Cocaine. Hey here’s one to slup into future funding bills.....DRUG TESTING each person that was collecting a federal paycheck before they can return to work. The real good tests too. Use a lock of hair. Watch the entire DC Beltway shave their heads while they judge shop for an injunction order.
It’s obvious that President Trump is fulfilling his oath of office to protect the American people. He doesn’t need Congressional approval to stop illicit deadly drugs from being smuggled into the US or to take out those who are bringing them in. They don’t have to be on American soil before he acts.
Pledging Allegiance to Somalia Is Becoming Common Among Democratic Candidates in Some Blue Cities
Just because Congress does not like we are in a War and does not want to recognize it that’s their problem. China uses other countries to kill 100,000 Americans per year with fentanyl, Iran is doing all it can to damage the USA, Russia also has their sights on America. Notice that all the wars or color revolutions Obama pulled were ok!
Bombing boats trafficking drugs is not the equivalent of conducting a war.
To anyone who doesn’t believe that cartel & ccp $$ haven’t corrupted police, prosecutors & elected officials across the country - not to mention the law firms the $$ funds to promote THEIR interests - I have a dozen bridges to sell.
What would you expect? Our great President is cutting off the cong’l addicts their drug supply and they’re going into withdrawal. Good show, Mr. President.
Remember when Obola said, “Days, not weeks.” and then proceeded to bomb Libya for eight months? Congress did squat about that.
The law was passed by Democrats with the supermajority of two-thirds to ensure they can lose a war against Communists. These laws were used to give Vietnam to the Viet Cong.
Your comment will shine on Larry Ellison’s re-algorithmed TikTok reboot. So shoot your video for it, with your iClown 19.
And remember this one? “Turns out, I’m really good at killing people.” - Barak Hussein Obama
Since we are not fighting Venezuela, we are fighting terrorists, who have been declared terrorists, there is no need to declare war.
We are not in a war, we are killing criminals.
Either works for me.
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