Trump: Congressional approval unnecessary for military action against Iran

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

Amid all of the uproar over possible retaliatory strikes against Iran in response to the shoot-down of an unarmed U.S. drone, a number of Democrats — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — arrogantly claimed that President Donald Trump needed to first obtain authorization from Congress before conducting any sort of military action whatsoever against the rival nation.

But Trump just made it clear that, while he appreciates the input of Congress and fully intends to keep legislators posted about what is going on, he doesn’t actually need permission before taking action to respond to attacks on the U.S. and American interests.

Putting it bluntly

In an exclusive interview on Monday with The Hill outside of the White House, President Trump was asked if he believed he had the authority to launch military action against another nation, in this case, Iran, without first asking Congress for permission to do so, and he replied in the affirmative.

“But we’ve been keeping Congress abreast of what we’re doing… and I think it’s something they appreciate,” Trump said. “I do like keeping them abreast, but I don’t have to do it legally.”

Trump initially gave the go-ahead for the U.S. military to conduct retaliatory strikes against Iran over the shot-down drone but called off the strikes just before they were launched when he decided they would be a disproportionate response to Iran’s actions.

“We were pretty close to maybe making a decision to strike. Then I decided not to do it. Nobody went out, by the way. I was going to make that decision by a certain time, and I decided not to do it because it wasn’t really proportional,” Trump said.

Dems disagree

With regard to the assertion by Pelosi and others that Trump is required to obtain congressional approval before initiating any sort of hostilities against Iran, or any other nation that had acted against the U.S., Trump said, “I disagree. Most people seem to disagree.”

“They have ideas. They’re intelligent people. They’ll come up with some thoughts,” the president said with regard to Congress. “I actually learned a couple of things the other day when we had our meeting with Congress.”

Trump was referring to a meeting with top congressional leaders on Thursday in the White House Situation Room to discuss the developing situation with Iran. Pelosi told reporters on Friday that Trump had given no indication to Congress that he intended to launch the strikes that were nevertheless called off at the last moment.

Similarly, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that Democrats had informed the president that he would need to garner their authorization before launching any such strikes.

Presidential authority

Obviously, Trump sees things differently and has no intention of seeking permission from Congress before taking action to defend the nation against an attack.

Trump is right, and it has long been established that while authorization from Congress is indeed necessary before launching major or sustained military offensives and strikes against an enemy, the chief executive and commander in chief already has full authority to take defensive or counteractions first and notify Congress later in response to an actual attack — such as a shoot-down of a drone — or threat of imminent attack against the United States.

358 Responses

  1. Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any recommendations for newbie blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.

  2. Howdy! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to check it out. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Superb blog and fantastic design.

  3. Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage? My blog site is in the very same niche as yours and my users would definitely benefit from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Appreciate it!

  4. Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website? My website is in the very same area of interest as yours and my users would definitely benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thanks a lot!

  5. Needed to compose you the bit of remark just to thank you so much once again for those extraordinary suggestions you have shown above. This has been surprisingly open-handed of people like you to supply freely exactly what many of us would have made available as an e-book to help make some cash for their own end, even more so seeing that you could have tried it in the event you desired. The tips in addition served as a good way to realize that someone else have the same dreams really like my personal own to figure out a little more with regards to this matter. I’m certain there are a lot more pleasurable times ahead for individuals who take a look at your website.

  6. I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Outstanding work!

  7. Have you ever thought about publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog based on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my readers would appreciate your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e-mail.

  8. I really wanted to compose a simple note in order to thank you for these lovely tricks you are giving out at this site. My considerable internet investigation has at the end of the day been rewarded with wonderful tips to share with my two friends. I would admit that we readers actually are very much fortunate to be in a fabulous network with many marvellous professionals with good tips. I feel very happy to have come across your entire website page and look forward to plenty of more excellent moments reading here. Thanks again for a lot of things.

  9. I enjoy what you guys tend to be up too. This kind of clever work and coverage! Keep up the very good works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my own blogroll.

  10. My husband and i felt very happy that Raymond managed to complete his investigations with the ideas he discovered out of your weblog. It’s not at all simplistic to simply choose to be freely giving hints which many people may have been selling. Therefore we do know we’ve got the writer to appreciate for this. All of the illustrations you have made, the easy site menu, the friendships you will make it easier to create – it’s got many unbelievable, and it’s really helping our son in addition to us understand the subject is interesting, which is especially mandatory. Thanks for the whole thing!

  11. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Opera. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Thanks

  12. Amazing blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog shine. Please let me know where you got your design. With thanks

  13. Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and all. Nevertheless just imagine if you added some great pictures or videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this blog could definitely be one of the greatest in its field. Superb blog!

  14. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  15. Awesome blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog stand out. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks

  16. I absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be exactly I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content in your case? I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write concerning here. Again, awesome web log!

  17. I’m really inspired along with your writing abilities as well as with the structure to your weblog. Is that this a paid subject or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the nice high quality writing, it is uncommon to look a great blog like this one nowadays..

  18. Hi there, I found your website via Google even as looking for a similar topic, your site came up, it appears good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

  19. An fascinating discussion is value comment. I believe that you need to write more on this matter, it might not be a taboo subject however generally persons are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers

  20. Thanks , I’ve recently been looking for information approximately this topic for a while and yours is the greatest I’ve found out so far. However, what concerning the conclusion? Are you certain concerning the source?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular