House Defies Trump: Senate Handed Him the War
UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council that the Middle East is being pushed to the "edge of the unimaginable," per The Guardian, as oil prices climbed past $100 a barrel following Houthi strikes on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to end American military involvement in hostilities against Iran, approving a non-binding resolution that directs President Donald Trump to withdraw armed forces — a rare bipartisan break, with four Republicans crossing the aisle to back the measure, according to NBC News. The Senate, controlled by Republican allies of the White House, moved in the opposite direction, voting to allow the conflict to continue.
The split puts Congress on public record against itself, and hands the administration exactly the ambiguity it needs. Non-binding resolutions do not compel action. They announce a preference and go nowhere, and the White House knows it.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council that the Middle East is being pushed to the "edge of the unimaginable," per The Guardian, as oil prices climbed past $100 a barrel following Houthi strikes on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. The constitutional mechanism for restraining presidential war powers — the War Powers Act — has been invoked before, and ignored before. Four Republicans is a signal, not a majority.
The House has now voted twice to rein in Trump's authority in this conflict. The Senate has voted twice to let it run. The gap between those two chambers is where the next escalation will be born.
