President Donald Trump sent a letter and a classified memo to congressional leaders Friday about “changes in the posture of United States Forces” in the Middle East. He didn’t call it the war with Iran, but he said he was writing “consistent with the War Powers Resolution,” a law that spells out the president’s constitutional duty to seek approval from Congress before committing the nation to war.
The law, often called the War Powers Act, requires the president to notify Congress within two days of major military action and consult lawmakers within 60 days of that initial notification. Even though Trump’s letter arrived on that deadline, he seemed to suggest the law doesn’t apply to what’s happening in Iran. “The hostilities that began on Feb. 28, 2026, have terminated,” the president wrote, citing the fragile ceasefire that began last month.
Here’s a closer look at the Vietnam War-era law that Democrats and some Republicans contend now gives Congress the power to end the conflict for good.
The ceasefire argument
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first floated the administration’s rationale at a Senate committee hearing Thursday, as lawmakers pressed him on when and whether the president would seek a war declaration.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which [to] our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire,” Hegseth said.
It was a preview of the administration’s argument that it does not need congressional authority for the war because no fire has been exchanged between the U.S. and Iran since the April 7 truce.
But the resolution is clear about what’s required when there is no formal declaration of war: Within 48 hours of introducing the U.S. military into “hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances,” the president must inform Congress of the reason and estimated scope and duration of the military action. Trump did that on March 2, two days after U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran.
No later than 60 days after that notification, the law says — in other words, Friday — the president must seek Congress’ approval for the war.
The law doesn’t address ceasefires, though, much less say they suffice to restart the clock. And ceasefire or no, the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports remains in effect and is broadly considered an act of war.
Finally, Trump, Hegseth and uniformed military leaders have repeatedly said since the ceasefire that U.S. forces remain massed in the region, ready to resume strikes on a moment’s notice. The administration may now have trouble making the case that such readiness doesn’t translate to a situation where “imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated.”
Where the War Powers Act comes from
The Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, but Trump isn’t the first president to try to skirt that.
Enacted in 1973 after Congress overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto, the War Powers Resolution gives the legislative branch a more specific say in how the commander in chief wields power over the military. In theory, the law requires the president to cease military action after 60 days unless Congress has authorized it or allowed a 30-day extension, or if an armed attack on the U.S. prevents members of Congress from meeting.
In practice, the law has historically been interpreted to allow the president to unilaterally involve the military in hostilities for any reason for 60 days.
Previous administrations have tried a start-stop approach to the 60-day clock in low-intensity military engagements, according to Katherine Yon Ebright, a counsel with the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program who focuses on war powers: the Reagan administration during the Tanker War, the Obama administration in its military operation against the Islamic State and the Biden administration in strikes on Iran-backed militias.
“But we’ve never seen the kind of bold abuse that we’re seeing now, where the president is trying to stop the 60-day clock for a major conflict that is unambiguously war,” Ebright told MS NOW.
The Trump administration could well point to those cases to assert that it can stop the clock on the 60-day deadline. But doing so in the context of the Iran war, Ebright said, it is “very much counter to the text and design” of the law and “well in excess of any historical precedent” under the resolution.
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