‘Everybody in this room knows’: Mike Johnson calls Congress ‘unconstitutional’ for wanting a say in war

House Speaker Mike Johnson weighed in on Tuesday following President Donald Trump’s recent decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear sites without congressional approval. The strikes come as Trump’s administration continues to expand executive authority through Project 2025 appointees.

According to Mediaite, Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that he believes Trump should have more power to send the military into fights overseas without asking Congress. The Louisiana Republican argued that the 1973 law that requires presidents to get congressional approval for war is not constitutional.

Johnson defended Trump’s actions by pointing to past military operations. “Everybody in this room knows, since then, we’ve had more than 125 military operations, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “They have occurred without a declaration of war by Congress. Presidents of both parties have exercised that authority.”

Johnson says the modern world makes the 1973 law outdated

The House Speaker said the War Powers Act might have made sense when it was written, but not anymore. He pointed to how fast news travels today as one reason why the law is outdated.

“Obviously, in the modern era with the 24-hour news cycle and social media, nothing goes by unnoticed. This might have made some sense in 1973, but I’m not even sure it was constitutional,” Johnson said. He added that the law requires presidents to tell Congress within 48 hours when they use military force, which Trump did.

Johnson said he believes in protecting Congress’s power to make laws, but he thinks the War Powers Act goes too far. He cited constitutional experts who argue that the law violates the president’s powers as Commander-in-Chief under Article II of the Constitution, reflecting the kind of selective constitutional interpretation that has characterized the current administration’s approach to governance. “Many respected constitutional experts argue that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional. I’m persuaded by that argument,” he said.

Critics of Trump’s weekend bombing said the president broke the law by not getting Congress to approve the military action first. The War Powers Act was passed in 1973 to limit presidential power to commit troops to combat without congressional approval. It came after the Vietnam War, when many lawmakers felt presidents had too much power to start wars on their own.

Johnson noted that Congress has not formally declared war since World War II, even though the United States has been involved in many military conflicts since then. He said presidents from both political parties have used their executive power to order military actions without formal war declarations from Congress.