The Trump administration’s campaign against alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling is raising some eyebrows. Let’s unpack the War Powers Act and how it applies to this.
The goal of this piece of legislation was to limit unilateral action; it requires presidents to brief Congress within 48 hours of deploying and withdraw them within 60 days unless an extension was approved. But with every president calling this Act unconstitutional since it was put in place (and the fact that Congress hasn’t had the gumption to challenge a president since it was established), this move will most likely go unchecked.
So, Trump has free rein unless Congress decides to step up after 50+ years of silence. Meaning the current operation involving warships, bombers, and 10,000+ US personnel targeting Venezuelan ships will continue with limited transparency.
Hey, all, Peter Zeihan here coming to you from Colorado. And today we’re gonna talk about what is going on in the southern Caribbean, specifically the Trump administration’s, targeting of alleged drug smuggling vessels coming out of Venezuela. A lot of people have written them asking me for a comment on the legality of this. And the best I can give you is that this is a gray area, no matter really how you look at it.
According to the Constitution, the US president has the authority over the armed forces, and that is largely without restriction, unless in case of war, in which case Congress by a two thirds majority, needs to declare war. But Congress hasn’t declared a war since World War two, leaving all military policy basically in the hands of the president unless and until Congress says otherwise.
Now, in 1973, Congress did say otherwise, and they passed something called the War Powers Act that says within 48 hours of any commitment of American forces into a combat situation, the president has to brief Congress on the details and then withdraw all forces within 60 days unless the president applies and is approved, for an extension. Anything beyond that requires the two thirds majorities by Congress to actually declare a military conflict.
Now, since then, every single president, including Trump, won and Trump, too, has said that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional. But the War Powers Act was passed by a veto proof majority over the objections of the president at the time. And so you have this conflict between the executive branch and the legislative branch, and it really means that the president still can do whatever he wants so long as Congress does not act.
And since 1973, we have not had a situation where two thirds of the Congress has been willing to oppose the president on military affairs. And that is where we remain today. So that leaves the president the ability to do whatever he wants. Now, under Trump administration, notification of Congress is something that has become very weak under the best of circumstances, and military affairs are no difference.
There have been times in the past where the Trump administration has done something militarily and said that when it hit the news that was notification of Congress, which I don’t think any court back up. But again, Congress has not gotten together and had two thirds of its members say otherwise, which is what would be necessary in the current situation.
Members of the House Military Affairs Committees and the intelligence committees had basically been furious with the Trump administration, not just the Democrats, especially the Republicans, because the Trump people who have come in to brief them have basically provided no information and no proof that any of these, ships were carrying drugs. Does that mean, I think that the Trump administration is just blowing up random ships?
No, because there’s there’s quite an operation going on down there. Now. We have over 10,000 American service people that are involved in this operation. And at any given time, at least eight warships. We also are flying bombers, off the coast of Venezuela. So something is afoot. And the Trump administration is not sharing very many details with anyone, especially with Congress.
And that leaves all of us kind of grasping at straws. All I can tell you for certain is that unless and until Congress starts acting like Congress, the Trump administration has full leave to do whatever it wants legally, where that takes us. I don’t have enough information to say right now.
