Trump informs the nation that, contrary to popular belief and the Constitution, he can just do war whenever he wants

For those of you who’ve been wondering over the past two months if the president of the United States can just do war whenever he pleases, the Constitution has an answer. And Donald Trump has another, one that *spoilers* completely ignores the good old document again.

So, there’s this American tradition dating back to 1973 called the War Powers Resolution, in which the president, after starting a war, is supposed to ask Congress within 60 days whether the war can keep happening. It’s a quaint piece of post-Vietnam housekeeping, making sure that the country doesn’t get bogged in another war for two decades and lose trillions of dollars, not to mention countless lives, as a result of the hubris of one man.

Trump, in classic Trump fashion, told the nation on Friday, on the 60th-day mark of the war he started against Iran on February 28, that the rule doesn’t apply to him. (per NBC News)

“It’s never been sought before, there’s been numerous, many, many times and nobody’s ever gotten it before, they consider it totally unconstitutional,” he said, in a sentence that scholars will be parsing for centuries. He added, for good measure: “Nobody’s ever asked for it before. It’s never been used before. Why should we be different?”

To cover the legal bases — or what passes for them in the White House these days — Trump also dispatched a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Chuck Grassley announcing that “the hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated.”

Trump finds a loophole again

The hostilities, you see, ended when Trump declared a ceasefire on April 7, which makes the ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports, the 45 commercial vessels that U.S. Central Command turned around on Friday alone, and the April 19 firing on an Iranian tanker merely vibes. Strong vibes. Possibly even hostile-adjacent vibes. But not, the administration insists, hostilities, or what constitutes warfare.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has been workshopping this argument all week, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire.” The clause is not actually present in the resolution, but since this administration already runs on wishful thinking and Fox News chyrons, that is hardly an obstacle.

Constitutional scholar Michael Glennon told NBC News that the administration’s argument is “a stretch,” noting that enforcing a blockade is, by any reasonable definition, a continuing act of war. Senator Richard Blumenthal put it more plainly, saying, “There’s no pause button in the Constitution.”

To which the White House’s reply, paraphrased only slightly and delivered with Dude-like serenity, is: well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.