Top Republicans on Capitol Hill who could check President Donald Trump’s military authority largely believe he has carte blanche to order strikes anywhere, anytime.
‘He’s the commander in chief,’ House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told the Daily Mail when asked if the president can strike any country of his liking. ‘I think what he did in Venezuela is a good thing.’
When pressed again on whether Trump has unlimited power to strike any location worldwide, the Ohio Republican admitted ‘the president could make his case, and we’d go from there.’
The president never sought approval from Congress to strike Venezuela and depose its ex-dictator Nicolas Maduro, or to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in the summer. Trump made those decisions on his own, albeit with some feedback from his Cabinet.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast told the Daily Mail that the president’s actions fall within his constitutional authority and that he’s allowed to strike any place on the globe at any time.
‘Should he want to, based upon his article two authority, if there’s a credible and imminent threat to the United States of America, absolutely yes,’ the Florida Republican said.
As for Trump’s veiled threats to conduct military operations in countries with flourishing drug production industries, like Mexico, well, Congress does not seem concerned with holding the president back.
‘They’re on the menu,’ Mast said of Mexico. ‘I think it’s a coin flip between them and people in Cuba.’
President Donald Trump should be allowed to strike other countries at his discretion, the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs chairmen told the Daily Mail
Drug cartels have wrecked violence in Mexico for decades and Republicans and Trump have noted that they are the ones really in control of the country, not government officials
Mast then noted how he had a friend who went missing while traveling to Mexico, underscoring how dangerous the country has been for decades.
‘Long story short, they found him like six months later, divided up into a couple separate garbage bags.’
Trump said Thursday that the cartels are ‘running Mexico’ and soon the US will start hitting land targets there.
‘We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels,’ he said. ‘The cartels are running Mexico, it’s very sad to watch, to see what’s happening to that country.’
Outside of a select number of Republicans and mostly all the Democrats, there seems to be little appetite on the right to hold Trump back from launching additional strikes.
However, the Senate voted to curb his ability to engage in further military actions in Venezuela during a procedural move this week.
Still, the move to restrict Trump will need another vote in the Senate and yet another in the House to become law and meaningfully hamper the president’s war powers.
The odds of that happening are slim – though there are some Republicans who want to limit Trump.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Mail that striking other countries should not be a unilateral decision made by the president
Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who formerly headed the House Intelligence Committee before Trump demanded Speaker Mike Johnson to remove him, told the Daily Mail ‘no’ Trump does not have the authority to strike anywhere at will.
Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, said the founding fathers did not intend for one person to have sole power over launching wars.
‘The Constitution is specifically designed to avoid an instance where any one branch has unilateral power, and most specifically that the President himself does not have power to just launch any war with any person whenever he feels like it, that this is something that we must do as a with consensus as a nation,’ she told the Daily Mail.
