President Donald Trump’s boondoggle of a war in Iran officially hit the 60-day mark on Friday, thus requiring him—by law—to get congressional approval to continue his hostilities.
Butt Trump and his administration came up with a bullshit excuse for why the War Powers Resolution of 1973 doesn’t apply to them in this situation.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators on Thursday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. “That’s our understanding, just so you know.”
Of course, that’s not how this works.
The law explicitly says that “within sixty calendar days” of the conflict, Trump must “terminate any use of United States Armed Forces” unless Congress “has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces.”
The word “ceasefire” does not appear anywhere in the law’s text.
“I do not believe the statute would support that,” Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has been leading the charge to pass a war powers resolution since the conflict began, told Hegseth at the hearing.
However, the Trump administration knows that seeking congressional approval bears risk.
First, a war powers resolution would put GOP lawmakers on the record supporting the war, and an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday found the war to be overwhelmingly unpopular. Putting Republicans on the record would give Democrats a clear-cut line of attack in this year’s midterm elections, which are looking to be a disaster for Republicans.
According to the survey, an overwhelming 61% of Americans say Trump’s war is a mistake. And the Washington Post reported that in just 60 days, the Iran war is as unpopular as the wars in Iraq and Vietnam, which took years to lose the public’s support.
Given that unpopularity, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that even this sycophantic Republican-controlled Congress would refuse to authorize further military action.
It’s not rocket science to figure out why Americans are furious about the war.
Since Trump chose to start the war, gas prices have climbed $1.40 per gallon. Currently, the average price at the pump in the United States is $4.39, according to AAA. That’s the highest they’ve been since 2022, when fuel demand skyrocketed amid the easing of COVID-19 closures as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine.
What’s more, the United States has gained nothing in return for the gas-price increase.
Iran is still controlled by a repressive and radical theological regime. Its nuclear program is not obliterated. And Iran is actually profiting from this mess, given that they now have control over the Strait of Hormuz, which they did not have before this war began.
“This war is stuck,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told Hegseth Thursday at the hearing on Capitol Hill. “The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The Iranian regime is in place, the nuclear material still in their hands. Americans are being crushed by higher costs, and it’s not clear to them at all what the goal of this war is.”
Ultimately, it’s unclear what happens now.
Democrats will keep forcing votes on a war powers resolution. But so far, only one Republican has flipped in support of the resolution: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing the most challenging reelection of her career.
“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” Collins said of the 60-day deadline.
Still, Republicans will have a political price to pay for allowing this disaster to drag on.
