Flashback: Presidents Don’t Need Congressional Approval to Strike Dictators, Say … UPDATE: Rubio

Democrats claim that Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran in Operation Epic Fury has no legal basis. The Protection Racket Media keeps comparing it to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Congress authorized. Both narratives claim that Trump has taken unprecedented action in seeking regime change in a terror state that had begun massacring its own people.

In rebuttal, I present … Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi? You bet, although to be fair, she made this argument a little before Operation Epic Fury. Fifteen years before, to be accurate, when Barack Obama took the exact same action that Trump did this weekend:

Resurfaced video of Nancy Pelosi asked about Obama bombing Libya,

He “did not need authorization” to use forcepic.twitter.com/0UrTWqewfx

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) March 2, 2026

And if that’s not enough, here is Barack Obama in 2011 justifying the use of military force against Moammar Qaddafi without congressional authorization. He leaned heavily on the attacks on rebels in Libya by Qaddafi’s forces, tacitly leaning on the “responsibility to protect” doctrine created by Samantha Power and claiming that America could not turn its eyes away from massacres, even by a nation cooperating with the US at the time:

“Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to such atrocities in other countries,” Obama told the audience. “The United States of America is different, and as president, I refuse to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.” 

It should be noted that the attacks by the Qaddafi regime were aimed at armed factions seeking to depose the dictator by force, not peaceful protesters in the streets. Obama chose a side in an active civil war, and did so without even providing Congress any official notice within the first 48 hours of action, as required by the War Powers Act. In fact, Obama never did inform Congress of his actions, arguing (a) that he was only required to report action by ground troops, and (b) his decision to hand control to NATO overrode the WPA requirement.

That is almost precisely the same situation as Operation Epic Fury, except that the Iranian regime has already massacred 32,000 protesters, and that they were not armed factions seeking a military confrontation. Donald Trump believed America can’t wait for more slaughter and mass graves before taking action. So why are Democrats who gave full-throated support to Obama’s sustained use of military force against Qaddafi suddenly shrieking about “illegal wars” now?

Oh, let’s not always see the same hands … 

This is Trump Derangement Syndrome, nothing more. The War Powers Act allows presidents to take this action, as long as they report it to Congress within 48 hours, and then seek approval if the action lasts sixty days. That doesn’t make these decisions wise, but it also doesn’t make Operation Epic Fury illegal. It’s not even unprecedented, and Democrats know it. 

And Jonathan Turley suspects they know they can’t really stop it, too. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) wants to push a War Powers Resolution this week in the upper chamber that purports to force Trump to end all military action in Iran. However, as Turley points out, there’s a gigantic loophole through which Trump can not only drive an MRAP, but which has already come to pass:

The resolution boldly declares “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use 14 of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the 15 Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government 16 or military.”

However, at the very end, the resolution has this line: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself from imminent attack.”

As I wrote this week, the problem with such resolutions is that they are effectively meaningless in the context of full combat operations against a nation: “Kaine and others insist that hostilities were not imminent when we attacked. Even if that were true, they are now.”

In these circumstances, it would be nearly impossible to limit the war powers of the President without putting American personnel or allies at risk.  After decapitating the leadership in Iran, Iranian assets are clearly operating under prior orders in a decentralized structure. The United States is now seeking to neutralize any assets that it can find in preemptive attacks while trying further to degrade the command structure and military capacity of the Iranian government.

The threat is no longer imminent. The Iranians are launching ballistic missiles at everyone south of Tehran at the moment, including American military bases, US Navy ships, and all of our regional allies. This resolution has all of the utility of locking the barn door after the horse has bolted. It’s nothing more than a useless virtue signal by hypocrites who didn’t just stand by fifteen years ago, but stood around and applauded when a Democrat president did exactly what Trump is doing now. 

Update: Marco Rubio destroyed the Dems’ arguments in about one single minute.

🚨 BREAKING: Sec. Marco Rubio is on FIRE right now

“Why not notify Congress?!”

RUBIO: “We can’t notify 535 members of Congress. Vote on whatever they want. There’s NO law saying we have to do that.”

“We did notify the Gang of 8…NO LAW requires the president! NO presidential… pic.twitter.com/nrtf9sWNFt

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 2, 2026

Inject this right into my veins. He’s exactly right on all points. 

Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.

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