Trump tells Congress “hostilities” with Iran have “terminated” as conflict hits 60-day deadline
Washington — President Trump on Friday advised congressional leaders that “hostilities” with Iran have “ended,” addressing a critical 60-day deadline underneath a regulation meant to restrict the unauthorized use of army pressure.
“There has been no exchange of fire between the United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026,” the president wrote in practically equivalent letters to House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the president professional tempore of the Senate. “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026 have terminated.”
The framers of the Constitution gave Congress the ability to declare conflict. Nearly two and a half centuries later, that authority is as soon as once more on the heart of a political and constitutional storm.
At challenge is the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a post-Vietnam statute meant to restrain presidential authority and be certain that extended army engagements obtain congressional approval. But as the conflict with Iran enters a important part, the regulation’s limits — and its ambiguities — are being examined in actual time.
The conflict started on Feb. 28, when US forces, alongside Israel, launched large-scale strikes on Iranian targets, igniting a broader regional confrontation. In the weeks since, Iran has retaliated, international vitality markets have been disrupted and the Republican-controlled Congress has been reluctant to claim its constitutional position.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the president might provoke army motion with out prior authorization however should notify Congress inside 48 hours and terminate hostilities inside 60 days except he approves an extension. That 60-day clock, triggered by the president’s notification to lawmakers on March 2, reached its deadline on Friday — a second that has sharpened tensions in Washington.
A rising variety of Republican lawmakers have mentioned the administration ought to start winding down the Iran marketing campaign. Some have mentioned they’re engaged on laws to authorize the administration to make use of pressure towards Iran, which might bypass the War Powers Resolution debate altogether.
The Trump administration has argued that the ceasefire brokered in early April successfully terminated energetic hostilities, and due to this fact paused the authorized countdown.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday mentioned that the ceasefire stopped the clock on the 60-day deadline to acquire congressional authorization.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” Hegseth mentioned throughout testimony in entrance of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
That argument, which the president made express in his notification to Congress, didn’t persuade some legislators.
“I do not believe the statute would support that,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia mentioned, including that the 60-day deadline on Friday would “pose a really important legal question for the administration.”
“We have serious constitutional concerns, and we don’t want to layer those with additional statutory concerns,” Kaine mentioned.
Despite the ceasefire, the administration has enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports, which is taken into account an act of conflict, and the US has threatened to imminently restart strikes. Just days after the ceasefire was introduced, Hegseth mentioned the army may return to motion “at the push of a button.”
“We are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation and on your energy industry,” Hegseth mentioned throughout a briefing on the Pentagon. “We’d rather not have to do it, but we’re ready to go at the command of our president and at the push of a button.”
The US nonetheless has greater than 50,000 service members within the Middle East. The president mentioned in his letter Friday that these forces are nonetheless in danger.
“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” he mentioned. “Accordingly, the Department of War continues to update its force posture in the [area of operations] in select countries, as necessary and appropriate, to address Iranian and Iranian proxy forces’ threats and to protect the United States and its allies and partners.”
Congress has by no means efficiently used the War Powers Resolution to finish a army marketing campaign, and there are examples of earlier administrations decoding the decision in such a means that permits army operations to proceed.
“Let me just tell you, on the war powers, so many presidents, as you know, have gone and exceeded it,” Mr. Trump advised reporters on the White House on Friday. “It’s never been used. It’s never been adhered to. And every other president considered it totally unconstitutional. And we agree with that.”
In 2011, the Obama administration argued that it didn’t want congressional approval for air strikes towards Libya previous the 60-day mark as a result of the operations didn’t rise to the extent of “hostilities.”
During army strikes in Somalia in 1993, President Bill Clinton’s administration argued it didn’t want approval from Congress as a result of the hostilities weren’t “sustained.” During Clinton’s second time period, the administration continued its bombing marketing campaign in Kosovo previous the 60-day deadline, arguing that lawmakers had approved the operations by approving funding for them.
Mr. Trump vetoed a resolution that sought to finish US army involvement in Yemen after it handed each chambers with bipartisan help in 2019. Congress didn’t have the votes to override the veto.
