House of Representatives war powers vote a rare rebuke to Trump from Capitol Hill
Reporting from the White House, Washington DC, US
The War Powers Resolution passed in part because there were a lot of absences on the part of Republicans.
But it also happened because there’s growing dissatisfaction among Republicans with Donald Trump’s war with Iran.
That’s given the fact that he pledged on the campaign trail not to start any more wars, and the fact that he intimated to the American public when this began that it would be over quickly. It is proving much more challenging in terms of negotiating an end with Iran.
What is significant is this isn’t the first effort in the House of Representatives to limit Donald Trump’s ability to conduct war, but this is the first time it’s passed. The other three measures did not.
It gives momentum to a similar measure that is in the US Senate, also Republican controlled.
But even if it were to pass in both chambers, nothing becomes law in the US without the president’s signature. That’s why it’s expected that the US president would veto any effort to limit his powers.
But, to be clear, the US Constitution says that it is Congress that must debate and vote on whether to send US troops, not the White House.
Congress has been largely absent in doing that, and is for the first time flexing its muscle in a significant way.
In other words, what is being said in Washington is that this is really a rare rebuke of Donald Trump, given the fact that this is a body controlled by his own Republican Party.
