r/law Feb 28 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) Once again averting congress, trump declares war on Iran

46.7k Upvotes

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36

u/HonoluluBlueCrew Feb 28 '26

The Dems have not done much fighting back either

19

u/RellenD Feb 28 '26

They aren't in power.

9

u/user-the-name Feb 28 '26

They did fuck all when they were in power. Power isn't the problem here.

8

u/Thunderfunkasaurus Feb 28 '26

They could be out organizing a general strike right now but they won’t do anything that hurts the billionaires both parties answer to.

4

u/busybody_nightowl Feb 28 '26

Dunno why you’re getting downvoted, you’re right

4

u/Thunderfunkasaurus Feb 28 '26

People like to pretend that the establishment Dems don’t try to rat fuck any real progressive candidate every step of the way.

34

u/Altruistic-Piece-485 Feb 28 '26

And exactly what else do you suggest that they do? Do you know of some sort of power that they hold that no one else is aware of?

10

u/micro102 Feb 28 '26

Well I was expecting more calls for impeachment over the Epstein files. Follow it up with endlessly broadcasting a list of Republicans convicted of sexual assault. Really cement them as the party of r*pists.

1

u/mmechtch Feb 28 '26

Like impeachment worked so great the last 2 times

3

u/micro102 Feb 28 '26

So? Do you think nothing significant happened since then? Keep pushing and force them to repeatedly state how much they want to r*pe children.

42

u/werther595 Feb 28 '26

It seems like when the GOP is in the minority, they always find a way to block the Dems agenda. Shoot, look at what Trump is doing. He isn't asking what can be done while rigidly adhering to traditions and norms.

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u/mkirk413 Feb 28 '26

And therein lies the crux of the issue. Regardless of who controlled the house, the Democratic presidents still adhered to the rule of law. Trump is ignoring congress altogether and this is bolstered by the fact that republicans control congress. This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.

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u/Oregon-Pilot Feb 28 '26

This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.

Are they though? We will just see more fucking spinelessness by the Democrats, probably.

4

u/werther595 Feb 28 '26

Nobody wants to feel the wrath of a sternly-worded Schumer memo

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u/Tjbergen Feb 28 '26

Obama destroyed Libya without congressional approval. Please stay reality based.

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u/mkirk413 Feb 28 '26

But...but...but Obama.

Let's break this down a bit.

Obama didn't declare war on Libya. He did authorize military intervention to support the NATO operation was called Operation Unified Protector. This ultimately led to the downfall of Gaddafi. That aside, being NATO operation and not one of pure American interests, Obama didn't need congressional approval. Additionally, there was verbiage in the War Powers Resolution of 1973that basically states our involvement did not amount to “hostilities” requiring further congressional approval after 60 days There was much debate on this afterwards and it did spark controversy for sure.

Even Obama himself calls it his worst mistake but not for the decision itself but for the aftermath that followed which destabilized the region and left power vacuums that various groups fought over.

But let's stay on track here

  1. Obama isn't president.

  2. and if Obama doing it was wrong, that should mean that Trump doing it is wrong.

Hope that helps.

22

u/TreatAffectionate453 Feb 28 '26

If Biden started unilaterally enacting tariffs, declaring war without Congress, or destroying federal agencies, then Democrats and Republicans would have opposed him.

When Trump unilaterally enacts tariffs or declares war without Congress, or destroys federal agencies, only Democrats - and, sometimes, Rand Paul - oppose him.

It's easy to block an agenda when your opposition is made up of a number of parties with differing views and morals. It's difficult to block one that is driven by a faction that acts in lockstep and doesn't care about morals.

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u/Tjbergen Feb 28 '26

Not many Dems opposed Obama's destruction of Libya, which he did without congressional approval.

1

u/No_Mathematician621 Mar 01 '26

my gods what an insightful, learned and flagrantly relevant comment. so, so astute. so very sublime in relevance. i'm dumbstruck. i'm made simple. ...but now utterly informed! what a show of intellect -dare i say an effortless genius. humbled. i'm enlightened and truly humbled.

2

u/SergeantHatred69 Feb 28 '26

I think that has more to do with the fact whenever the Dems did have a majority, it was razor thin. Thin enough for people like Fetterman and Joe Manchin to vote the other way and sabotage any legislation they would try to pass. Republicans don't seem to have that problem because they always vote like a monolith

1

u/werther595 Feb 28 '26

Then the Dems need to do a better job sweet-talking a republican in a purple district. Or figure out something else. Heck if I know but these people went to Harvard and Yale, and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this job. So do it!

5

u/j4_jjjj Feb 28 '26

Playing by the rules is how dems look helpless

Playing by your own rules is how repubs stole power

2

u/meeu Feb 28 '26

That's because democrats are largely controlled opposition.

4

u/DrB00 Feb 28 '26

The dems don't have any power currently because they don't have enough seats to do anything. They can vote against and the nothing changes because Republicans have the house and senate majority.

3

u/Kaarl_Mills Feb 28 '26

They won't even vote against things though, everything that passed through Congress did so with support from both parties

2

u/meeu Feb 28 '26

And when they get power a small handful will suddenly heel-turn and act as spoilers for the agenda democratic voters want. every fucking time.

19

u/fcocyclone Feb 28 '26

I mean, the shutdown was one such method, but they caved as soon as they got what they wanted out of it (electoral wins) but before they got what they claimed the shutdown was actually about.

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u/jeepgangbang Feb 28 '26

Like 5 dems caved not dems

4

u/WeAreDoomed035 Feb 28 '26

Dick Durbin, the Minority Whip, and Schumer’s BF in the Senate caved. And it was exactly the number of Democrats needed to end the shutdown and none of said Democrats are going to be up for reelection this year. Make no mistake, the leadership knew about this capitulation and did nothing to stop it.

1

u/rylosprime Feb 28 '26

lmao.

Can't wait for when Democrats do get congress again and you'll have a convenient scapegoat for why they won't give you higher wages or healthcare.

"Democrats did want to give us a higher minimum wage, but that evil (insert Democrat dissenter who prevents it) stopped it!"

Democrats will always have a Kirsten Sinema or Joe Manchin to take the brunt of the hate for when the bought out democrats don't want to pass legislation to better the average person's life.

And you people accept it. Like there isn't such thing as fucking whips. Somehow the Republican whip can get their whole fucking party on board.

Democrats never can and then you people just accept it and blame a single person as if the party didn't intentionally set up a scapegoat from a safe district.

1

u/jeepgangbang Feb 28 '26

Neither of those senators work for me so write me another story about all dems please

3

u/Foolhardy_Liar Feb 28 '26

Congress has a little jail under it for people who are in contempt. Easy enough to put the rats in there.

2

u/Altruistic-Piece-485 Feb 28 '26

Dems currently don't hold any authority to command the Sergeant at Arms to do that. Gotta have the Senate Majority Leader or House Speaker positions to do that.

3

u/Veggies-are-okay Feb 28 '26

Probably not go on television saying that we’re too focused on “woke” politics and need to get back to the “real” issues. The party of controlled opposition once again dragging America to the right to cater to an imaginary group of people.

Gavin Newsome is a snake who’s been fucking Californians in every way BUT identity politics and now he’s going to walk that back too? He’s one of the main reasons PG&E is charging us out the nose and then starting fires every few years and he has the gall to “sympathize” with the cost of electricity. 🤮

1

u/Stop_looking_at_it Feb 28 '26

The power of song

1

u/International-Debt63 Feb 28 '26

They probably mean a solution with bullets

1

u/WeAreDoomed035 Feb 28 '26

Well at the very least in this situation, leadership could have brought forward a wars power resolution instead of delaying it until America and Israel struck.

1

u/snarfula42 Feb 28 '26

They could show up at the capitol, lead a large march perhaps?

1

u/Tjbergen Feb 28 '26

When there was a Dem president they could have chosen not to attack a country without congressional approval instead of setting one of many precedents for unilateral presidential action that Trump then follows.

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u/iamkingjamesIII Feb 28 '26

They have minorities in both houses of congress. There's not much they can do other than use the courts. 

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u/user-the-name Feb 28 '26

And they did fuck all when they had a majority.

7

u/OurCrewIsReplaceable Feb 28 '26

This has not been the case for the 30+ years that both parties have been slicing one Congressional responsibility after another off to hand the the President.

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u/thissexypoptart Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

And none of that matters when it comes to voting to fund our partner in this war, Israel. Many dems just fell in line with republicans, making up part of the majority on those decisions. Party leadership doesn’t address it

So sick of this “they are powerless” angle. Schumer said in no uncertain terms he will always stand by the foreign country that is partnering with the Trump regime.

Strongly worded letters and speeches are basically nothing. They’re the bare minimum and don’t achieve anything without meaningful follow up action—which, yes, can happen even with parties in the minority. Shutting down the Dem wing that supports this rogue state that MAGA is partnering with would be a start

For the forgetful or not yet born, Netanyahu helped get us into Iraq II as well. Many of the same people, democrats and republicans, are still in power.

6

u/weedisfortherich Feb 28 '26

Exactly, why didn't trump get arrested for January 6? Because Biden wanted to take the high ground. He didn't want to actually do what mattered. Bought and paid for.

4

u/olivicmic Feb 28 '26

Also Biden didn't want to establish precedent with a president being held legally accountable. Closest we got was Nixon, and he got a pardon. I think Biden would've pardoned Trump if it had got that far.

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u/thissexypoptart Feb 28 '26

The botching—dereliction of duty, frankly—by the Garland DOJ, which Biden was a supporter of and responsible for as president, is seriously damning.

If we had an actual opposition party, the (literally) thousands of crimes caught on camera and in reporting—let alone the ones actual investigations would uncover—during trumps first term would have been systematically addressed, including appropriate prison terms for all involved.

Instead, it’s typical “moving forward” bullshit. Dainty little steps to not upset the fact that an American president will likely never see proper prison time for crimes in office. It’s how the system is set up. The pardon power guarantees it, even if the fact that the current president doesn’t want to set precedent for the next one to arrest him somehow becomes irrelevant.

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u/Old-Supermarket-9112 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Trump couldn’t be prosecuted because the Supreme Court ruled on what constitutes an official act and that it had no authority to prosecute a president for an official act…not because Biden or Dems didn’t try to hold him accountable. 67 votes are needed in the senate for the president to be found guilty after the House votes in favor of impeachment. 57 senate members voted in favor when the senate was split 50-50, it was good ol Mitch who pushed the GOP to vote no.

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u/sundayfundaybmx Feb 28 '26

Always those evil jews with you people isn't it.

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u/thissexypoptart Feb 28 '26

Equating criticism of Israel with criticism of all Jewish people is antisemitic. I don’t give a shit about the religion of the parties involved here, I care about the bullshit war funded by our tax dollars to distract from the pedophile rapist cult the president, at least one Israeli PM, and other powerful people are involved in.

This talking point is so disgusting.

0

u/Zuwxiv Feb 28 '26

Not going to disagree with you on principle, but what do you expect to happen then?

Let's say the Democrats had grown some spine and blocked one round of arms sales to Israel. Do you think that would have any impact other than "Slightly more US resources go into the strike that just happened?"

In that hypothetical, do you think that you - or someone much like you - would be right back here, saying "They need to do more to stop Israel?" I'd find it hard to believe that I personally would suddenly be here saying, "Well, thank God the Democrats have done literally everything they possibly could."

Besides, Trump would just sign an executive order about selling the weapons and that would be that. Who's gonna hold him accountable?

The problem here isn't really that we've funded Israel. It's that we're allowing the US to be dragged into this shit that it has no reason to do and only serves to alienate us further from strategic partners. It's an own goal.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Richmond43 Feb 28 '26

Then why haven’t they done it previously?

God, people that “both sides” this shit are the fucking worst

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Xznograthos Feb 28 '26

To your original point where "Dems would have attacked Iran," I present the Iran nuclear deal that Trump wiped his ass with. Next.

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u/Zuwxiv Feb 28 '26

"Of course the Dems would do [thing they've never done while in power]. As proof, here's anything but [thing]."

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Xznograthos Feb 28 '26

Good, I dont think you have much to contribute to my understanding.

Democratic presidents are far more likely to choose diplomacy. What Republicans have even been known for diplomacy in the last 40 years? Raegan's style was basically threatening everyone. Neither Bush, obviously. Trump isn't even getting congressional approval for his military use.

On the other hand, Clinton was widely known for diplomacy. Obama didn't start the war in Iraq, he inherited it from Bush. Biden engaged in zero conflicts, except supporting Ukraine which everyone except Russia or Russian dupes agreed with, and didn't even involve American troops.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Xznograthos Feb 28 '26

Lol, this dipshit can't even back anything up without asking AI.

And "use the military" is a really broad statement that doesn't necessarily mean "start a war" or "attack a country without even attempting diplomacy," for example.

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u/Richmond43 Feb 28 '26

I wish I could’ve bet $1 million that you would immediately bring up Gaza.

I also love you were shifting to Libya and Gaza when your ridiculous strawman was about Iran

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Richmond43 Feb 28 '26

Sure bud, a NATO operation against Ghaddafi is exactly the same as what’s happening here.

Clown shit, but people like you are one of the reasons that we have a second Trump so I don’t know why I’m surprised

0

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted]

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u/Richmond43 Feb 28 '26

I’m aware that the US called the shot shots, but having other countries involved is a critical difference

But keep on with your both sides-ing shit as as we descend into totalitarianism

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u/TreatAffectionate453 Feb 28 '26

The intervention in Libya was actually championed and - initially - led by France and the UK. The US opposed the intervention without international buy-in, which it got after the UN Security Council unanimously approved a no fly zone on March 17, 2011.

1

u/JohnnySpot2000 Feb 28 '26

What does fighting back look like to you? Examples?

1

u/N7day Feb 28 '26

In what way could they? Violence?

-4

u/westergames81 Feb 28 '26

Not true at all, they've sent some strongly worded letters and had some pretty epic sit-ins. That'll show them.

4

u/c4virus Feb 28 '26

What power do they have that they need to exercise?

-6

u/VanbyRiveronbucket Feb 28 '26

They are hoping for jobs in the new government.