SEN TIM KAINE: Trump's Venezuela strike trampled Congress' war powers. Congress must stop it
President Donald Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Nicolás Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere. That history is replete with failures — in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere — that destabilized the region and led to deep hostility toward the United States.
The White House spin room is already working desperately to sell this disaster to the American people, including to the anti-interventionist MAGA base that elected President Trump. At the top of the to-do list was a presser that included Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
During the presser, Trump dug an even deeper hole. He acknowledged that the illegal operation could have come at a serious cost to U.S. service members. He pledged to "run" Venezuela and was unable to answer follow-up questions about what that means. He offered vague overtures that American companies could steal Venezuela’s oil — a lousy attempt to show that this reckless operation was to America’s benefit. And he and Rubio even threatened that Cuba is next.
KAINE TELLS CONGRESS TO 'GET ITS A-- OFF THE COUCH,' RECLAIM WAR POWERS
We assert that nations should respect each other’s sovereignty. How can we make that claim with a straight face when the United States doesn’t? We sign on to international human rights conventions forbidding the killing of disabled combatants.
How can we look the world — or ourselves — in the eyes when we murder shipwrecked people who were not even aware that the president had put them on a secret list of those who could be targeted by the U.S. military?
We pledge fidelity to a Constitution that specifies that war may not be initiated without a vote of Congress. How can we casually allow this president — or any president — to deploy our military against other nations without notice to, consultation with, debate within or a vote by Congress?
And where will this go next? Will the president deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fraying ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To attack Cuba? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and more. But he clearly sees no need to seek legal authorization from the people’s elected legislature before putting service members at risk.
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The net effect of the president’s actions — unilateral illegal military strikes, chaotic tariffs, disrespectful rhetoric — is to weaken relations with allies and boost our adversaries. China, in particular, recently released a Latin America strategy promising deeper partnerships with nations in the region. We know from experience that such Chinese partnerships are often hollow and even predatory. But our neighbors in the Americas will embrace partnership, even if uncertain, rather than accept dominance.
Not only is this action likely to drive our neighbors further into the arms of our most serious strategic adversary — putting Americans’ economic and national security at risk — it is yet another broken promise by an erratic, unfocused president. What happened to putting America first? Americans are begging for lower prices, but all Trump is interested in is chasing opportunities to lead us into wars we don’t want.
It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade. My bipartisan resolution stipulating that we should not be at war with Venezuela absent a clear congressional authorization is poised for a vote in coming days. And I expect there to be many more such resolutions in the year ahead.
We’ve entered the 250th year of American democracy and cannot allow it to devolve into the tyranny that our founders fought to escape.