Trump Is Rewriting America’s War Rules — And Congress Can’t Stop Him

Key Highlights

• But even as they attempted damage control, many privately acknowledged that Congress no longer functions as an equal branch in matters of war and peace.“Congress has ceded its authority in far too many areas,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska during the trip.
• “We can’t just complain about executive overreach—we have to confront our own failure.”Yet those efforts have so far fallen short.
• The current Congress has not reversed the steady transfer of power to the presidency—power that successive administrations have used to wage wars, impose sanctions, and redraw geopolitical red lines with minimal legislative oversight. Representative Sara Jacobs of California described the situation bluntly: the problem is not just Trump, but “decades of Congress completely abrogating its responsibility.”Why the System Is BreakingThe US Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, while making the president commander in chief.
• But history has steadily blurred that line. From Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, presidents have repeatedly launched or expanded military actions without formal declarations of war.
• After 9/11, Congress itself handed the executive branch sweeping authority through open-ended Authorizations for Use of Military Force—powers that never expired and are still invoked today. At the same time, warfare itself has changed.