The Trump administration told Congress Thursday that the legislative branch doesn’t need to worry about authorizing the war with Iran that President Donald Trump launched two months ago. The War Powers Resolution says that a president only has 60 days after deploying U.S. military forces to either fully withdraw those forces or get formal approval from legislators for the campaign to continue. Despite hitting that deadline Friday, the White House is now saying that as far as it’s concerned, the hostilities that began two months ago are “terminated,” leaving no reason for Congress to act.
The result is a quantum-flux state of play regarding the Iran war that’s as absurd as it is illegal.
It’s a confounding sentiment given the U.S. warships still blockading Iranian ports and the possibility that Trump could launch a new round of strikes at any time. But time has clearly become flexible to the Trump administration and its allies. Depending on who you ask, and when, America’s war against Iran is simultaneously ongoing and doesn’t exist; it began 60 days ago but also 40 years ago. The war ended in early April, but our “warfighters” still need unconditional support to achieve victory.
The result is a quantum-flux state of play regarding the Iran war that’s as absurd as it is illegal. The conflicting arguments stretch the limits of credulity in hopes of avoiding laws meant to prevent America being dragged into a conflict with no end — and, in this case, seemingly no real beginning.
When Trump announced the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing against Iran, there was immediate concern that at no point had he tried to get authorization from Congress ahead of the strikes beginning. Hegseth claimed during one of his first press conferences after the campaign began that the U.S. “didn’t start this war,” implying it was an act of self-defense despite the U.S. being the one with fighter jets flying sorties.
More confounding was the claim from the State Department’s legal advisor that the hostilities with Iran merely continue a conflict ongoing since 1979. Despite there being a ceasefire for talks after last June’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, the State Department’s analysis claims that “if a conflict has not ended, then it must be ongoing.” (Keep that in mind for two paragraphs from now.)
The White House formally notified Congress about the military deployment on March 2, starting the 60-day clock for approval. While never fully clarifying the war’s goals, the White House halted airstrikes on April 7 when both sides agreed to a ceasefire. Since then, there have been muddled negotiations between Iran and the U.S. and a last-minute extension from Trump as the original two-week pause reached its end. But throughout the off-and-on peace talks, the U.S. has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iran has continued to choke off trade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Incredibly, when asked about the War Powers Resolution deadline during a Senate hearing Thursday, Hegseth claimed that it was a moot point. While deferring to the White House counsel’s judgement, the defense secretary claimed, “we are in a cease fire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a cease fire.” Hegseth’s statement echoed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s words to NBC News earlier that day: “We are not at war.”
Johnson’s refusal to acknowledge Congress’ role in declaring war is troubling on its own. But it pales next to the administration’s efforts to avoid the War Powers Resolution’s clear requirement when congressional approval is lacking: “terminate any use of United States Armed Forces” regarding the conflict after 60 days. As Just Security noted, “this withdrawal of U.S. forces occurs by operation of law – that is, according to pre-existing terms of the statute, without any further action by Congress.” It’s supposed to be up to Trump to convince Congress to let the troops stay engaged in hostilities at this point, not Congress’ job to force him to remove them.
Moreover, simply claiming that there’s no fighting isn’t the same as the war endingrum
Moreover, simply claiming that there’s no fighting isn’t the same as the war ending. Previous administrations have claimed under something called “intermittence theory” that the clock starts and stops with each discrete set of military strikes. But a ceasefire is not a lasting peace, and the War Powers Resolution only speaks of “hostilities” ongoing, not armed conflict. In other words, under the law, if U.S. forces are deployed. nobody needs to be firing shots for the clock to keep ticking.
Meanwhile, the continued blockade of Iranian ports is unquestionably an act of war under international law, not to mention an action that is putting U.S. service members at risk of being drawn into renewed combat. Trump is also reportedly considering a renewed round of attacks to force the re-opening of the strait or convince Iran to hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium. Under his administration’s interpretation of the law, the U.S. breaking the ceasefire would merely resume the clock with weeks left before needing authorization — or potentially restart it entirely.
As Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school, recently wrote in The New York Times, it is imperative that the courts “simply hold that the War Powers Resolution requires the president to end our involvement in the war with Iran unless and until Congress authorizes it.” Until that happens, Congress’s power to declare war, already weakened, has been made effectively irrelevant. Instead, we live in a world the White House will keep trying to argue that a war that lasts for 10 months is the same as one that lasts 60 days is the same as one that’s lasted forty 40 years is the same as one that only lasted 40 days.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.