Where Is Congress in Trump’s Rush to War?

For weeks he telegraphed he would grab congressional authority to make war. Iowans in Congress didn't object and normalized it

As I write this column on Saturday night, word comes that the U.S. has bombed three nuclear targets in Iran, and attacked them with missiles launch from U.S. naval vessels at sea.

Those attacks directly insert the U.S. into a war in the land where wars never end.

There was no sharing of information about the need to do so, before the bombs fell; no debate about the wisdom or effectiveness of doing so before the missiles were launched; and apparently, little to no consultation with Congress which - under the constitution - holds the sole authority for deciding whether this nation goes to war.

Iowans in Congress seem just fine with all that. In the lead up to Trump’s war, they didn’t object to, and normalized, this latest power grab from Congress by the president.

Of course, now that we are where we are, I pray for the safety of U.S. troops. I pray that their mission will lower the risk of nuclear war, which is its stated goal though far from its certain result.

President Trump somehow believes the attack Saturday night will be the end of it, that Iran will immediately capitulate, and that there will be no need for further U.S. military action there.

In his dreams.

I hope he’s right, but of course, Iran will retaliate. This is all taking place in a region where wars never end. Combatants there ALWAYS retaliate, in cycles that repeat for generations.

Late Saturday night, that fact apparently and finally made its way to Donald Trump, who decided to add a postscript on social media to his remarks earlier in the evening: “Any retaliation by Iran will be met by force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.”

Exactly. We are at war with Iran.

The only one who chose that course is Donald Trump.

Since everything Trump does, according to Trump, is always the “greatest ever” or the “best ever,” etc. it is hard to accept at face value, at least initially, Trump’s glowing report on the success of his bombs and missiles against Iran: the missions were a “spectacular success,” totally destroying their targets.

It’s too early to know that, and initial reports in these kind of situations almost always turn out to be at least somewhat in error if not outright fabricated.

I also wish I could shake the gnawing feeling that Trump’s decision to launch his war of choice was part of his theatrical approach to his presidencies - both 1.0 and 2.0. He has always wanted to project himself as a strong man. He actually likes the idea of being a “war president.” The decision to launch a war, coming just one week after his big military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C. is just a little too convenient for me to assume it was just a coincidence in timing. It looks more like a bad script writer’s fantasy,

There is another aspect to Trump’s decision to choose war in the land where wars never end that is even more important and bothers me: the blatant unconstitutionality of what Trump has just done.

The U.S. Constitution is pretty clear about which branch of the federal government decides if and when this nation goes to war.

Spoiler alert: It is not the exeutive branch. It is not the president.

It is the Congress.

The constitution gives Congress sole authority for making that decision. Yet Congress seems to have been totally uninvolved in Trump’s decision. Not even consulted, or even informed in advance, much less asked to decide.

Why did the Founders who wrote the constitution give the power to decide matters of war and peace to Congress, and to Congress alone? Because it is the American people who pay for our nation’s wars and who do the fighting and dying in America’s wars.

• They have a right - and need - to be informed of the reasons for going to war before we go to war.

• They have a right - and a need to hear - a thorough debate about the pros and cons of going to war before we go to war.

• The executive is required to obtain their consent - through their elected congressional representatives - before going to war.

Donald Trump pole vaulted over that process, that protection against wars the people do not support - on Saturday night. He ignored that constitutional requirement.

Let me hasten to add: I am not second guessing Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. I do not yet have - none of us have - enough information to make a decision to do so at this point.

The Founding Fathers, however, intended for us all to have it before the bombs start falling.

Trump’s usurpation of war powers the constitution placed soley in the hands of Congress robbed us of that information, and any debate for or against this war.

My point is that - according to the U.S. Constitution - it was not the president’s constitutional role to make this decision unilaterally. A Declaration of War by Congress was required and Trump ignored that requirement.

I would also be less than candid if I did not admit that I am, frankly skeptical. of Trump’s motives for going to war, his soundness of mind throughout this presidency so far and when he made that decision, and his competence to make such a decision.

He is, after all, the fellow who ripped up the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran that limited its ability to make nuclear weapons. Nor has he even been able to deliver a Department of Defense (DOD) budget to Congress, even though it is now months over due.

Face it, if he wasn’t president, Donald Trump wouldn’t be on anybody’s “A Team” for making a decision about whether this nation will go to war.

While it is important to keep focused on events yet to come in our new war with Iran in the land where wars never end, it is also also vital to reflect on how we got here, and what role the Congress played in getting us here.

Trump has been telegraphing for some time this is where he was heading - a war with Iran, launched on his own say-so and nobody else’s.

What did Congress do?

What did Iowans in Congress do?

They did what they always do: they were cheerleaders for Trump and embraced his every and newest dysfunction; and they remained silent, never suggesting it wasn’t his decision to make alone, but their decision to make, with their congressional colleagues, expressing the will of the American people after a thorough debate on the subject.

It doesn’t get much more important than following the constitution - to the letter - on matters of deciding between war and peace. Yet, Senators Chuck Grasssley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA); and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-1st IA), Ashley Hinson (R-2nd), Zach Nunn (R-3rd) and Randy Feenstra (R-4th) are once again found among those who dropped the ball in the lead up to Trump’s new war in the land where wars never end that started on Saturday night.

Do better Iowa delegation. Do better.

Each member of Iowa’s congressional delegation took an oath to support and defend the constitution. They need to start doing so in the face of Donald Trump’s continuing and escalating onslaught against it.

WEEKLY OVER DUE FARM BILL TRACKER: 631 days

631 days have passed since the 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, without Congress passing a new one. (Total days as of Sunday, 06/22/2025).

Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serves on the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees: Grassley (R-IA) and Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate; Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Feenstra (R-4th IA) in the House.

There is little indication Congress will act any time soon to pass a new Farm Bill, or if it does - given the Trump wrecking ball and the eagerness of Republicans in Congress to follow him in that effort - that it will be helpful to farmers.

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