On Saturday night, President Donald Trump announced that the US had carried out what he called "massive precision strikes" on three nuclear facilities in Iran. Before the news broke, Trump had been playing coy about whether he would get involved in the campaign between Israel and Iran earlier this month. "Nobody knows what I’m going to do," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Since then, there have been a dizzying number of updates that have been hard for even me—a reporter who is steeped in the news all day, every day—to keep up with. This is partly because Trump has been very active on Truth Social, defending the strikes as successful, even though top Pentagon officials said Sunday that it was “too early” to say whether Iran may retain any nuclear capability, and calling to "Make Iran Great Again" through "regime change," despite the fact that top administration officials have denied that that's what they're seeking. And just today, Iran reportedly launched missiles at a US military base in Qatar in retaliation for the strikes; the US has not reported any casualties thus far. (See why I said this news is hard to follow?)
Even before all of that, several members of Congress—including a few Republicans—responded to news of the Saturday strikes with criticism that Trump did not have the power to launch them without seeking approval from Congress. As I wrote yesterday, Trump is not the only president who has been the subject of such critiques. But they hit different in light of all the other ways Trump has disrespected checks on his authority:
Other presidents have, indeed, faced accusations of unilaterally proceeding with military action: Former President Barack Obama was accused of doing so in a military operation in Libya in 2011, as was former President Bill Clinton when he launched a military operation in Kosovo in 1999. More recently, some members of Congress accused former President Joe Biden of overstepping his power when he launched strikes on Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen last year. But for Trump, the latest move exists as one of many, many ways he has flouted the Constitution and the rule of law during only five months back in office—including potentially violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting a free jet from Qatar; trying to abolish birthright citizenship; and unconstitutionally detaining people for protesting.
Check out my piece from yesterday to learn more about the Congress members' critiques.
—Julianne McShane
P.S. This weekend's episode of Reveal is a February 2024 episode featuring New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Lauren Chooljian, who investigated the pervasive problem of sexual misconduct against women seeking treatment for addiction. Make sure to give it a listen.
