During his re-election campaign, Donald Trump promised to avoid foreign military entanglements, especially those that risked becoming “forever wars” – a commonplace descriptor for past US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nevertheless, since returning to the White House in January 2025, he has authorized: “counterterrorist” strikes in Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Yemen; attacks on the “narcoterrorist” Maduro regime in Venezuela and alleged drug traffickers in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific; and bombing and cruise missile attacks on Iran in June 2025 and the more extensive campaign begun in February 2026. In addition, the American president has threatened, in various ways, to intervene militarily in Greenland, Colombia, and Mexico to advance his “America First” agenda. So far, Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives have blocked repeated attempts led by Democratic members to limit further military operations against Iran without explicit approval by Congress under the 1973 War Powers Act.
At the same time, the operational conduct of such military activities, as well as statements by the President and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have fueled concern in Congress and the public regarding possible violations of international conventions and US laws, regulations, and norms governing the use of force. Trump’s recent posts on social media – notably, his threat on April 7, referring to Iran, that “an entire civilization will die tonight” – are cited by some in Congress as a prima facie breach of one or more international conventions. So, too, are Hegseth’s reported approval of a lethal follow-on strike last September on two shipwrecked survivors of a partially destroyed “drug boat” and his statement last month that US forces will show “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies [in Iran].”
This episode of Transatlantic Currents will examine the sources and extent of presidential authorities to order military strikes; the role of Congress under the Constitution, War Powers Resolution, and authorizations for the use of military force; the messaging employed by the Trump Administration regarding the conduct of military operations; and possible long-term effects of the aforementioned on transatlantic defense and military cooperation.
Programme
Speakers:
John Bellinger, III, Adjunct Senior Fellow in International & National Security Law, Council on Foreign Relations
Leo Michel, Non-Resident Fellow, FIIA
Opening words:
Maria Lindén, Research Fellow, FIIA
Transatlantic Currents is a monthly webinar series hosted by FIIA’s Center on US Politics and Power featuring American experts on political science and international relations. The series covers a wide array of timely topics from foreign and defense policy to US domestic issues of particular interest to the transatlantic community.
Photo credit: The White House / Daniel Torok)
