&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "From Nixon to Trump: How US presidents have sidestepped Congress on war powers")
US President Donald Trump has insisted he does not need congressional approval to continue the war with Iran. He said that previously, presidents never sought congressional approval, bypassed the War Powers Act, reinterpreting what constitutes "hostilities". As the critical 60-day deadline expired on Friday, Trump said that using the War Powers Act to restrict the President's power is largely "unconstitutional". Trump and his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth contend that the deadline clock paused when the current ceasefire came into effect.
"So many presidents, as you know, have gone and exceeded it," said Trump, "It's never been used. It's never been adhered to." Regardless, some of Trump's recent predecessors sought to comply with war powers authority vested in Congress, whereas some found loopholes to bypass it. The War Powers Act was passed in 1973 to limit the ability of then-President Richard Nixon to wage war in Vietnam.
US President who won authorisation
US President George HW Bush famously sought congressional approval and got it in 1991 for the Gulf War. But he maintained that he did not need it. The 1991 Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF) remain in record till 2023, when it was repealed by Congress. His son George W. Bush won approval for the wars he waged in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. In 1983, US President Ronald Regan won authorisation for the deployment of Marines to Lebanon, despite largely resisting the War Powers Resolutions throughout his term.
US President who avoided authorisation
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Bill Clinton in 1999 avoided authorisation and carried out a 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo, suggesting that the law was broadly unconstitutional. Similarly, in 2011, Barack Obama intervened in Libya, without any authorisation from Congress, arguing that it was a joint NATO operation and no US ground troops were deployed. While Joe Biden did not start a war and moved away from Afghanistan, he went on to carry out strikes in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, supported war efforts in Israel and Ukraine, which were smaller in scale, bending the necessity of the War Powers Resolution.
