President Donald Trump launched a major combat operation against Iran without prior congressional approval, announcing on February 28 that U.S. and Israeli forces had begun strikes under what the White House called “Operation Epic Fury”—a military campaign critics say deliberately sidesteps the 1973 War Powers Resolution requiring congressional notification and authorization.
The operation began at approximately 1:15 a.m. with a salvo of cruise missiles and air-launched munitions targeting Iranian military leadership, missile infrastructure, and nuclear facilities. As of late March, U.S. Central Command reported 290 American service members wounded during the offensive, while the Pentagon has ordered the 82nd Airborne Division to deploy to the Middle East as ground operations remain under consideration. Trump has justified limiting congressional involvement by claiming lawmakers “have a tendency to leak.”
The Iran operation marks Trump’s second major military action in three months conducted without prior congressional authorization. On January 3, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a nighttime raid on his compound in Caracas, with congressional leaders reportedly not informed until after the operation began. That operation sparked fierce debate when the House narrowly rejected a War Powers Resolution that would have forced an end to military operations in Venezuela.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Trump’s pattern of unilateral military action. “President Trump has made no secret of his intentions to effectively abolish the Congress, and that pattern continues today with his flagrant disregard for the Article One war powers of Congress which is essential to our constitutional system of checks and balances,” Pelosi said in response to the Venezuela operation.
The War Powers Resolution requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops into combat and obtain congressional approval or withdraw forces within 60 days. Passed in 1973 over President Nixon’s veto following the Vietnam War, the law was designed to prevent exactly the kind of unilateral executive military action Trump has now undertaken twice in rapid succession.
The administration’s legal justification rests on parsing the distinction between declaring “war” and conducting “military operations”—a semantic argument critics dismiss as constitutional sophistry. While Trump has invoked the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force in past operations, that authorization specifically targets terrorist organizations responsible for the September 11 attacks, not nation-states like Iran.
Senator Bernie Sanders demanded immediate action to reassert congressional authority. On February 28, Sanders issued a statement declaring: “It is the Congress that declares war, not a president acting unilaterally. The Senate must reconvene immediately and vote on a pending War Powers Resolution.”
The Venezuela operation exposed the administration’s willingness to act without congressional input. Trump administration officials told senators there were no U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela and committed to obtaining congressional approval before major operations—statements made just days before special forces captured Maduro. Trump later stated the U.S. would “run the country until we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” while refusing to rule out further troop deployments.
Republican leadership has largely supported Trump’s expansive interpretation of executive war powers, though cracks have emerged. Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska broke ranks to vote with Democrats on the Venezuela resolution. Bacon pointed to a fake image Trump shared showing the president planting an American flag on Greenland as one reason for his vote.
Operation Epic Fury comes amid broader concerns about Trump’s military policy approach, which has included threatening Denmark over Greenland and conducting operations without standard intelligence committee briefings. When pressed on his decision to exclude Congress from operational planning, Trump defended the secrecy by pointing to concerns about leaks, prioritizing operational security over constitutional requirements for legislative oversight.
Democratic leaders warn that Trump’s pattern represents a fundamental threat to constitutional checks and balances. Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued during floor debate that Trump “is reducing the United States to a regional bully with fewer allies and more enemies.”
The political impact of Trump’s strategy became clear during the House vote on the Venezuela resolution. Republican leadership held the vote open for more than 20 minutes while Representative Wesley Hunt rushed back from Texas to cast the deciding vote. Democrats shouted at the chair to close the vote, but the delay allowed the 215-215 tie that defeated the measure. Vice President JD Vance similarly broke a Senate tie on a similar resolution, demonstrating the narrow margins by which Trump’s unilateral authority survives congressional challenge.
With 290 Americans wounded in Operation Epic Fury and no clear endpoint for Iranian operations, pressure mounts on Congress to force a constitutional confrontation over war powers. Whether lawmakers can muster the political will to check executive military authority remains unclear, but Trump’s decision to structure operations to limit congressional involvement has crystallized the stakes of the debate.
