Trump Admits He’s Ignoring Constitution in Iran War

Donald Trump admitted that he is referring to the Iran war as a “military operation” to circumvent the Constitution.

In remarks at a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner Wednesday night, the president joked: “I won’t use the word ‘war,’ because they say if you use the word ‘war,’ that’s maybe not a good thing to do. They don’t like the word ‘war’ because you are supposed to get approval. So I will use the word ‘military operation.’”

Article 1 of the Constitution, which created Congress in the first place, gives the legislative branch the sole power to declare war. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 further clarifies this, requiring the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing American forces into a conflict.

But there’s an easy loophole here, first exploited by Harry Truman in 1950 to send U.S. troops to Korea—just call your plan a “police action,” or a “military operation.” Whatever the hell you want, really, except an act of war. Then you don’t need those sniveling nerds to approve anything!

The War Powers Resolution failed to fix this loophole, and Congress still hasn’t officially declared war since World War II. Our country has sent hundreds of thousands of troops to kill and maim in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran. But for all the death, memorials, and flag-waving, none of those wars technically took place.

Trump flat-out admitting he’s doing this—in front of GOP representatives, no less!—should be a slap in the face to any lawmaker who claims to believe in the Constitution. But besides Senator Rand Paul and Representatives Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie, every single congressional Republican has rolled over and allowed Trump to continue bombing at will. May their children never see such “military operations” in the flesh.

It appears that the war on Iran—the one President Trump keeps saying is already over—is so costly that the Pentagon is weighing taking weapons and resources from Ukraine to use in the Middle East.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the U.S. may divert air defense interceptor missiles specifically from Ukraine while their stockpile depletes—something European leaders have expressed concern over.

“They are really burning through munitions, so there are questions now about how much they will keep providing through the deal,” an anonymous diplomat told the Post.

While this has yet to occur, the fact that shifting weapons is even an option does not inspire any kind of confidence in the successful end of the war in Iran. Thousands of Iranian and Lebanese civilians have been either killed or displaced, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and rumors of a boots on the ground initiative grow stronger by the day. Meanwhile, the war and the man who started it are becoming less and less popular. From Ukraine’s perspective, Russia has not eased up in any way on its attacks, and won’t anytime soon. The air defense interceptors will be sorely missed.

President Donald Trump raged against the filibuster and his fellow Republicans Thursday morning.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump urged Republican lawmakers to eliminate the dastardly filibuster once and for all. Republicans have previously fought to maintain the filibuster, which grants significant power to the Senate’s minority, but Trump has repeatedly demanded they get rid of it as part of a deal to end the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Trump shared an op-ed written by Senator Ron Johnson for the Daily Wire in which the Wisconsin Republican argued that he’d seen enough of the dysfunctional Senate to know that they needed a “paradigm shift.”

“In light of the profound dysfunction described above, I’m not sure how things could get much worse by ending the filibuster,” Johnson wrote. It was a half-hearted argument, but clearly, Trump was inspired.

“When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators,” Trump wrote in a separate post. “There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance.

“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items,” Trump added.

“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!” he wrote in another post.

In yet another post, Trump wrote: “Chuck Schumer, a desperate, crippled politician, who has lost control of the Radical Left Democrats, will make a deal now because he thinks that if he doesn’t, Republicans will TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, something which they should do whether he makes a deal or not!!!”

The Justice Department has reached an agreement to pay President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn about $1.2 million, after he sued the Department of Justice for what he claimed was an unlawful prosecution.

The brief two-page settlement filed Wednesday does not include how much the settlement is worth, or any details of the agreement, but AP and ABC sources report the sum is roughly $1.2 million.  

In 2023, Flynn sued the DOJ for $50 million despite being charged in 2017 with providing false information to the FBI during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The former army general claimed he was “unlawfully and politically” targeted during the investigation because of his association with Trump. 

Flynn’s own actions say otherwise. In 2017, he admitted to lying to the FBI, and twice pleaded guilty to the charges against him. He withdrew the plea in 2020, however, citing the government’s “vindictiveness” and “bad faith.” 

Along with lying to the FBI, Flynn is known for pleading the Fifth in court when asked if the violence on January 6, 2021, was justified, and if he believes in a peaceful transfer of power. 

Less than a year after Flynn withdrew his guilty plea, Trump quietly granted him clemency. It was one of many astonishingly corrupt pardons that have come to define the president’s time in office, and one that showed that if you commit a felony on his behalf, you’ll likely be protected from all consequences.

As if protection from prosecution wasn’t enough, Flynn will now be compensated with taxpayer dollars for his unwavering loyalty to Trump. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement lied about having the authority to arrest hundreds of lawful asylum-seekers and individuals seeking citizenship at immigration courts.

In a court filing late Tuesday evening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Oestericher of the Southern District of New York revealed that a memo the government had relied on to support the arrest of hundreds of immigrants appearing at immigration courts “does not and has never authorized” civil immigration enforcement actions at those courts.

The revelation was part of a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union and various other civil rights groups, challenging the government’s practice of dismissing asylum and citizenship cases and snatching law-abiding immigrants en masse at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, as well as other immigration courts across the country.

The prosecutor wrote that the government would withdraw several briefs that had relied on the memo, as well as certain statements made in oral arguments in federal court in September. Oestreicher wrote that a previous order from U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel would likely need to be “reconsidered and re-briefed.” In September, Castel ruled that ICE could make arrests in courthouses and also made it harder for judges to dismiss cases.

Oestericher claimed that the mistake came from ICE, not the Department of Justice, which has made more than a few immigration law gaffes in the past several months.

“The undersigned were specifically informed by ICE that the 2025 ICE Guidance applied to immigration courthouse arrests. In addition, we discussed with and obtained the approval of assigned ICE counsel before filing every brief in this case and making any oral representations to the Court and Plaintiffs,” Oestericher wrote.

Former New York City comptroller and current congressional candidate Brad Lander, who was brutally detained by ICE in June during his campaign for New York City mayor, while attempting to escort an immigrant out of a courthouse in lower Manhattan, slammed ICE for misleading the courts.

“According to documents filed this morning by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, ICE has been lying for a year—not only to the public, but to the courts and to prosecutors—about being authorized to make arrests at 26 Federal Plaza and other immigration courts,” Lander wrote on X Wednesday.

“This is genuinely a bombshell. All courthouse arrests should cease immediately. There should be a Congressional investigation & civil rights actions for every illegal abduction of immigrants trying to follow the rules and appear in court.”