One Democrat Sinks Iran War Powers Resolution to Rein in Trump

The House of Representatives voted down a war powers resolution that would have restricted President Trump’s war in Iran by just one vote Thursday, 214–213.

Representative Thomas Massie was the lone Republican to vote in favor of the measure, while Republican Representative Warren Davidson voted present and three Republicans abstained.

Every Democrat voted for the resolution except for Representative Jared Golden of Maine.

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks proposed the bill, which “directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” making exceptions for extreme cases, “unless explicitly authorized” by Congress.

Before the vote, Meeks said on the House floor, “Donald Trump has dragged the American people into a war of choice, launched without congressional authorization. The president has no coherent strategy, and this open-ended, undefined military engagement is precisely what the War Powers Resolution was designed to restrain. Every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp.”

Golden also voted against a war powers resolution March 5, writing in a statement at the time that “The president has so far acted within the authorities given to him by Congress through the War Powers Act of 1973. He has been briefing Congress, and he has 60 days to make his case for ongoing operations. This is not an illegal war — but it could become one.”

Since then, despite damage to multiple schools and medical facilities in Iran as a result of the war, Golden is the only Democrat in the House who thinks that Trump’s Iran war hasn’t crossed any lines. Symbolic or not, Thursday’s vote shows that Congress is willing to let Trump keep using the military however he sees fit.

This story has been updated.

A bomb threat was reported at the Illinois home of Pope Leo XIV’s brother John Prevost on Wednesday night. This threat—which was eventually proven to be false—comes amid a week of targeted attacks on Pope Leo from President Trump regarding the pontiff’s opposition to the illegal U.S.-Israeli wars on Iran and Lebanon.

There were no injuries, and neighbors were allowed to reenter their homes after evacuation, after police conducted a comprehensive search.

There is nothing tangible that suggests the threat was connected to Trump’s attacks on the pope, and an investigation is still ongoing. Trump did, however, just invoke the Pope’s other brother, Louis—a Trump supporter who lives in Florida—in his “weak on crime” rant against Pope Leo.

“I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA,” Trump wrote on Sunday. “He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.”

President Trump is claiming that he has negotiated a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, posting on Truth Social Thursday that the two nations have agreed to suspend hostilities for 10 days beginning at 5 p.m. E.T.

“On Tuesday, the two Countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our Great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. I have directed Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Razin’ Caine, to work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a Lasting PEACE. It has been my Honor to solve 9 Wars across the World, and this will be my 10th, so let’s, GET IT DONE! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote.

Israel has said that it was targeting Hezbollah in its bombing campaign, which has killed an estimated 2,167 people in Lebanon since the beginning of March. Trump’s post didn’t mention whether Hezbollah, which has opposed the talks between Israel and Lebanon, is on board with the deal. He also made no mention of Lebanon being a sticking point in the U.S.-Iran talks, as Iran and mediator Pakistan maintained it was.

Whether this ceasefire will hold is anyone’s guess, especially considering that Israel’s sweeping evacuation orders in southern Lebanon suggest ethnic cleansing against Shia Muslims—but Trump will surely declare victory nonetheless.

This story has been updated.

President Trump has canceled $11 million in funding to Catholic Charities in Miami for taking care of immigrant children as he continues to feud with Pope Leo XIV, who has criticized Trump’s mass deportations and the war in Iran.

The federal government has worked with the organization since the first Cuban exiles arrived in south Florida. The government, through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, has paid the nonprofit for years to house immigrant kids who arrive in the U.S. without any adult guardians. The operation runs in a similar way to foster care, independent from state agencies, and the government notified the charity in March of its decision.

“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Miami Archdiocese said in a statement to the Miami Herald’s editorial board. “The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country.”

Wenski added: “Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months.… It is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence” shown by the organization.

The Department of Health and Human Services told the newspaper that the refugee office is handling about 1,900 unaccompanied minors daily, compared to a peak of 22,000 during the Biden administration.

“ORR is closing and consolidating unused facilities as the Trump Administration continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children,” said HHS spokesperson Emily G. Hillard. It’s unclear how many children are in the Catholic organization’s care, and what will happen to the children if their full-service child welfare program in Miami-Dade County is forced to close.

Trump has blasted the pope for being “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” but the administration’s criticism of the church’s immigration stances goes back even further. In January 2025, Vice President JD Vance suggested that Catholic bishops were more worried about their federal funding than administration policies. It would seem that Vance’s words back then have now become the administration’s policy.

The Trump administration is lying to the public—and it doesn’t care.

In a heated exchange before the House Ways and Means Committee Thursday morning, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. insisted that his department has “done better” at preventing measles amid a global epidemic than “any country in the world.”

Measles is an incredibly contagious disease, meaning that an outbreak anywhere is dangerous for people everywhere. Several countries across the globe, including India, Angola, and Mexico, are currently combating thousands of cases. But even America’s relatively small caseload—which currently sits at more than 1,800 for 2026—does not suggest that the Trump administration has excelled at combating the virus. Instead, that number has put the U.S. at risk of losing its measles elimination status, which it has maintained since the year 2000.

“There is no country that has seen a bigger percentage increase” than the U.S. under the second-term Trump administration, argued California Representative Linda Sanchez.

Measles does not have a cure. The disease can cause a blotchy rash, pinkeye, a high fever, white spots inside the mouth, full body aches, pneumonia, and severe dehydration, and it can result in hospitalization or even death.

Fortunately, however, it is highly preventable thanks to a vaccine that was developed by a couple of American scientists in 1963. Less than a decade later, in 1971, researchers created yet another vaccine capable of preventing measles as well as two other contagious illnesses—mumps and rubella—thanks to miraculous developments in modern medicine.

The joint shot was named the MMR vaccine, an acronym for “measles, mumps, and rubella.” Kennedy has railed against the three-in-one shot, baselessly claiming that it was not “safely tested.”

America’s diminishing herd immunity is due to a growing movement of anti-vax parents—whom Kennedy champions at the federal level—who refuse to provide their children with the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories that, at one point, linked autism to the jab.

During the deadly measles outbreak in Texas last year, Kennedy advised that state residents take extra vitamins rather than receive the vaccine, and justified a local religious community’s decision not to receive it by claiming that the measles vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris” as well as “DNA particles.” Fact check: It does not.

But the 72-year-old has a lot to gain from pushing disinformation about the jab: The more doubt and division that Kennedy sows, the more money he’ll make. Ahead of his appointment, Kennedy disclosed that he made roughly $10 million in 2024 from speaking fees and dividends from his anti-vaccine lawsuits.

He’s also made cash from merchandising handled by his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, which bungled anti-vax messaging in Samoa so badly that it started a 2019 measles outbreak that resulted in the deaths of at least 83 people, the majority of whom were children under the age of 5.