Since that time, several War Powers Resolution votes to end the war have been submitted but subsequently failed, due to Republican lawmakers (joined by<\/a> a few Democrats<\/a>) blocking them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the War Powers Act does not give presidents an indefinite time to continue their military ambitions<\/a>. On May 1, a 60-day deadline will be met, at which point Trump must take further action if he wants the war in Iran to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Per the law, hostilities must come to a close if Congress doesn\u2019t authorize the war. Trump can request a 30-day extension, requiring him to certify, in writing, that the current campaign is the result of an \u201cunavoidable military necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Providing proof of that \u201cnecessity\u201d may prove difficult for the president. Notably, military intelligence indicated at the start of the war that Iran didn\u2019t pose an imminent threat to the U.S. or its interests in the region<\/a>. One high-ranking official in the Trump administration has resigned from his position<\/a>, denouncing the war as unnecessary. And in March, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard refused to answer questions<\/a> on whether Iran posed a threat when prompted in congressional testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past, some presidents have dealt with this requirement by simply ignoring it<\/a>, continuing their unauthorized use of the military for as long as Congress has allowed. But Republican lawmakers may do so at their own political peril, as the war is deeply unpopular, with one poll demonstrating that 7 in 10 Americans want it to end \u201cas quickly as possible.\u201d<\/a> The war\u2019s continuation could also translate into lost seats for the GOP in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, if Trump does try to extend the war powers deadline with a formal submission of documentation to Congress, it could be seen as an admission that he has to abide strictly to the confines of the law \u2014 something that the president, who always seeks to project a persona of strength<\/a>, may try to avoid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, the administration hasn\u2019t indicated what its plans are for the May 1 deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although his line of thinking may have changed due to recent political shifts, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) indicated last year that he would not support the War Powers Resolution when it comes to imposing restrictions on Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany respected constitutional experts argue that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional,\u201d Johnson said in remarks to reporters last summer<\/a>, leaving out which experts, specifically, he was referencing. \u201cI\u2019m persuaded by that argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faced with the possibility that Republicans may allow Trump to ignore the May 1 deadline, Democratic lawmakers in Congress are contemplating a lawsuit against the administration<\/a> if the president doesn\u2019t adhere to the terms of the War Powers Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLegal action has to be explored,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), speaking to Time <\/em>magazine about the idea. \u201c[Trump] has to be confronted with illegality, and the court is one way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article<\/a> was originally published by Truthout<\/a> and is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \nChris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, based in Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on people. He can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @thatchriswalker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a crucial legal deadline for the U.S.\u2019s unauthorized war in Iran approaches later this week, President Donald Trump may opt to ignore it altogether \u2014 and Republican leaders in Congress may allow him to. Trump launched the joint U.S.-Israel war in Iran almost two months ago. According to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-article","8":"category-iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1745,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/1745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/the-secularist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chris_walker-1-400x400-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\nChris Walker<\/h3>\n\n