President Trump sent letters to Congress on Friday making the case that a Vietnam-era law requiring him to seek congressional authorization to continue military operations in Iran did not apply because the conflict was in a cease-fire.<\/p>\n
In the letters \u2014 sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate \u2014 Mr. Trump said that he was writing to inform them \u201cof changes in the posture of United States Forces\u201d and reiterated his administration\u2019s position that a cease-fire he declared on April 7 had stopped the clock on the war<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, if presidents deploy American forces into hostilities without congressional authorization, they must end the operation after 60 days<\/a> if the legislative branch does not grant permission for the continued use of forces on the mission. The law also allows the president a single 30-day extension, but only to safely bring troops home, not to extend combat.<\/p>\n But Mr. Trump\u2019s letters made the case that there had \u201cbeen no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7,\u201d and that hostilities the United States and Israel began on Feb. 28 \u201chave terminated,\u201d in an apparent attempt to avoid having to seek congressional approval. He did not mention that U.S. forces fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship<\/a> on April 19.<\/p>\n And just hours later on Friday, the president undercut his own argument.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we\u2019re in a war,\u201d Mr. Trump said in remarks in Florida. \u201cBecause I think you would agree we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n His administration\u2019s position may not satisfy key Republicans who have, for weeks, pointed to the 60-day mark<\/a> as the pivot point when the president\u2019s unilateral authority to direct armed forces to attack Iran would run out, and Congress would have to decide whether to authorize a longer foreign war. Senior Democrats immediately rejected the assertion that the cease-fire had paused the clock, an argument the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, first put forward<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump never sought congressional authorization for the military campaign he launched in February, when the United States and Israel began bombarding Iran with airstrikes. He formally notified lawmakers of the operation on March 2, starting the 60-day clock, which ran out on Friday.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump repeatedly asserted that the strikes he ordered in Iran earlier this year did not amount to a \u201cwar,\u201d but rather a \u201cmilitary operation\u201d or \u201cexcursion,\u201d and has openly admitted that he has avoided calling it a \u201cwar\u201d because he did not seek congressional approval<\/a>. Still, he often uses the word war anyway<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, speaking to reporters outside the White House, Mr. Trump asserted that he didn\u2019t need to ask Congress to extend the war \u201cbecause it\u2019s never been sought before,\u201d and he claimed that the requirement was \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always in touch with Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cBut nobody\u2019s ever sought it before. Nobody\u2019s ever asked for it before. It\u2019s never been used before. Why should we be different?\u201d<\/p>\n Congress has, in fact, authorized deployments into major hostilities past 60 days since the enactment of the War Powers Resolution, including major operations like the Persian Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as smaller operations like a 1983 peacekeeping mission<\/a> in Lebanon.<\/p>\n