US Reports: Trump Might Declare War on Iran Without Congress Approval

US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
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US Reports: Trump Might Declare War on Iran Without Congress Approval

US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)

US administration could launch a military strike against Iran without congressional approval, according to US media reports. The administration is relying on key elements drawing links between al-Qaeda and Iran and casting Iran as a terrorist threat to the US.

Sources in the reports indicated that these elements will give Donald Trump's administration the justification it needs to fight Iran under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution without congressional approval.

President Trump has said more than once that he does not want to wage a war against Iran, however, the reports noted that the possibility of a US military strike against Tehran is still possible. The strike is particularly supported by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to US media reports.

Congress would not give Trump the green light to a strike unless it was needed, as Congress saw it. Most Democrats, and even some Republicans, refuse to engage US forces in another war in the Middle East.

With Congress unlikely to grant Trump new authority to strike Iran under the current circumstances, and amid a campaign of "maximum pressure" against the regime in Tehran, media reports revealed that Trump administration sent strong signals that they will be ready to make an end run around lawmakers, using the 2001 authorization for the use of military force, if necessary.

The use of military force law gave the president the power to use force against “nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

The United States already included some of Iran's organizations, including the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as terrorist organizations, and Trump and his administration can use the hawks to justify a military strike, or even a war with Tehran, without the need for congressional approval.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has accused Iran of assisting al-Qaeda and being linked to a terrorist threat against the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

That could give the US administration the justification it needs to fight Iran under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution without congressional approval.

Earlier this month, the US deployed an aircraft carrier strike group “Abraham Lincoln” to the region. US officials said that a surge in US forces in the region was a response in part to intelligence-gathering suggesting that the Iranian regime had given proxies a green light to attack US personnel and assets in the region.

Lawyers familiar with the 2001 law and its applications say it's obvious from those moves that the Trump administration is trying to enforce the use-of-force resolution in case the President decided to strike Iran.

Yale University law professor Harold Koh, who served as the State Department's top lawyer under Secretary Hillary Clinton, indicated that the whole thing is building up to the notion that they don't have to go to Congress for approval.

“The theory of war powers has to be that Congress doesn't just sign off once,” said Koh in a telephone interview with NBC News, adding that the “suggestion now that Iran attacked us on 9/11 is ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, Trump pushed back Friday against reports of conflict between Pompeo and Bolton, calling sourcing cited by reporters “bull----.”

“Mike Pompeo is doing a great job. Bolton is doing a great job. They make it sound like it’s a conflict,” the president said in a speech to the National Association of Realtors.

“At least Iran doesn’t know what to think, which at this point may very well be a good thing!” Trump said in a tweet.



Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.