Trump’s tough talk on Iran prompts Senate vote

WA SHINGTON» Political unease over the White House’s tough talk against Iran is reviving questions about President Donald Trump’s ability to order military strikes without approval from Congress.

The Senate is heading toward a vote Friday on an amendment to a sweeping defense bill that would require congressional support before Trump acts. It’s not expected to pass. But lawmakers say Trump cannot continue relying on the nearly 2decade-old war authorizations Congress approved in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, an author of the measure, says he’s not alone in raising concern about Trump’s “pingpong diplomacy” and “go-it-alone posture.”

“This reckless diplomacy is dangerously reminiscent of the run-up to the war with Iraq,” he said on the Senate floor Thursday.

The effort in the Senate signals discomfort with Trump’s approach to foreign policy. Most Democrats and a few Republicans support Udall’s amendment, but it faces steep resistance from the White House. And the Pentagon wrote a letter opposing it.

“We must assert our constitutional authority,” Udall said. “We must do so now, before — through miscalculation, mistake or misjudgment — our nation finds itself in yet another endless war.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it nothing more than another example of “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which he explained as whatever the president’s for “they seem to be against.”

McConnell said putting restrictions on the White House would “hamstring” the president’s ability to respond militarily at a time of escalating tension between the U.S. and Iran.

“They have gratuitously chosen to make him the enemy,” McConnell said. “Rather than work with the president to deter our actual enemy, they have chosen to make him the enemy.”

But Trump’s approach to the standoff with Iran and his assertion earlier this week that he doesn’t need congressional approval to engage militarily has only sparked fresh questions and hardened views in Congress.

Trump tweeted last week that the U.S. came within minutes of striking Iran in response to its shooting down of an unmanned U.S. drone until he told the military to stand down. He said he was concerned over an Iranian casualty count estimated at 150.

“We’ve been keeping Congress abreast of what we’re doing ... and I think it’s something they appreciate,” Trump told The Hill website.

“I do like keeping them abreast, but I don’t have to do it legally.”

As the popular defense bill was making its way through the Senate, Democrats vowed to hold back their support unless McConnell agreed to debate the war powers.

The defense bill was roundly approved Thursday on a vote of 86-8.