Congress Has the Power to Authorize War. They’re Handing It to Trump.
Plus: The Secret Service’s secret-issue timekeeper.
Trump loves misdirection. Whether in the area of trade policy, negotiations over a potential government shutdown, or the prospect of entering a violent conflict in the Middle East, Trump has an irrepressible instinct to throw people off the scent of what he’s really thinking.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday while discussing a prospective attack in Iran’s nuclear facilities. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump’s justification for a strike was undermined in advance by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified to Congress in March that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon even as they were enriching uranium at levels that could soon allow them to. When a reporter brought up Gabbard’s comments after Israel’s strikes on Iran began, Trump replied, “I don’t care what she said.”
The president’s advisers sometimes defend this sort of move as part of a coherent strategy meant to keep other parties off balance. And Trump himself believes there is value in being perceived as “fucking crazy” (his own words!) by his global counterparts, particularly as it relates to use of the military.
But Trump’s deliberately chaotic approach is making some lawmakers a bit nervous. Is Trump asserting that he has the authority to preventatively1 strike a country without Congress’s consent? Of course he is. Trump has already approved attack plans, but hasn’t put his signature on the order to set them in motion yet, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. (“I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due,” he said.) His waffling has lawmakers scrambling to either prevent a strike or get onside with Trump as quickly as possible.