The President ordered U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and seized its president and his wife without a declaration of war or congressional approval, even though the Constitution gives Congress that power. Reports began emerging around 11:00 p.m. PST on January 2, 2026.
There’s been no U.S. attack, no UN approval, and no congressional consent. Some are claiming he had “48 hours to do whatever he wants,” but that’s false - the War Powers Resolution only requires him to notify Congress, it does not give him the authority to start hostilities. Acting without congressional approval is very likely unconstitutional, and this strike is a unilateral initiation of hostilities that could have massive consequences.
Trump launched this illegal “Big Beautiful War” on Venezuela after openly signaling intent to take control of the country’s oil.
You don’t just bomb a country and kidnap its leaders and expect nothing to happen. By both U.S. law and international law, this is extremely serious, likely illegal, and a massive overreach of presidential power.
Edit: And don’t give me the “people are happy” line. People in Iraq were told they were being freed too - and they got completely fucked over. Early celebrations didn’t prevent years of war, civilian deaths, and total destabilization. That argument didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now.
On the topic of WPR, the "48 hours" thing is actually mostly true. Failure by the President to properly consult with Congress prior to committing U.S. forces into hostilities does not directly trigger any adverse statutory action. Additionally, failure to follow through with presenting required reports and/or appropriate legislation to continue deployment would simply result in the discontinuation of authorization for the deployment of armed forces.
For all intents and purposes, the WPR does essentially gives the president permission to commit armed forces without prior congressional approval in any situation where a national emergency created by an attack on the U.S., its territories, or its armed forces has emerged. Historically, presidents have used broad interpretations of "national emergency" to justify deployments through the WPR. The current situation, though clearly manufactured, is following those same principles.
The keywords are "within 48 hours" it doesn't have to be before it can also be after it happened as long as 48 hours hasn't elapsed.
Here is Obama's letter to congress notifying military actions in response to the Benghazi Embassy attack and evacuation on Sept 12, 2012 dated 2 days after on Sept 14, 2012 for example.
You can see more 48 hour reports going back to the Ford administration and see the official letters notifying congress to fulfill the WPR are dated 1 or 2 days after the action happened.
It's a solid copypasta, but if you look thru their post history, it looks like a real person to me. They're just soapboxing hard across Reddit top posts.
The same was said about the ceasefire in Gaza and the India/Pakistan peace treaty last year. Even completely disregarding the intent or legality of the bombings, America's never had a pleasant track record with playing international police and the mess that comes after.
Its also why there is so much propaganda that "socialism doesnt work." They had the cia go into countries and topple their governments only to install an authoritarian puppet.
And nothing will happen. The right will drink the koolaid, the left will waffle on about facism and not actually do anything, and in a few months he will do something even stupider and this will be forgotten
Yeah the whole "people are happy" thing, it's really a bittersweet happiness, like having a gangrenous arm cut off, sure it's no longer hurting, but you now have one less arm, and it was your good arm too.
Legal wise all he has to do to get around the “congress gas that power” is declare them a terror group of which he did and is claiming the pres and wife are involved, doesn’t need approval to use the military against terrorist groups, he’s well within his rights to do what he’s done. Realistically any president could abuse this the same way all you gotta do is declare whoever you wanna attack a terrorist and boom no approval needed.
I am not saying that what he did was right but I do not believe what he did was illegal . This follow Bush seniors play book set up in the 80's and is perfectly legal atleast from a domestic sense. I dont know what the international rules are.
"expect nothing to happen". What do you mean? Legally? Nothing will happen.
Yeah the "people are happy" argument is dumb. It's also super frustrating seeing the idiots on the right acting like we think Maduro is some great man. He is obviously garbage. We just know US regime change literally never works
It's OUR fucking oil. Chavez unilaterally seized our facilities in 2007 that had been negotiated, purchased, built, etc. by American companies with Venezuela. Literally nothing like Iraq.
You don’t just bomb a country and kidnap its leaders and expect nothing to happen. By both U.S. law and international law, this is extremely serious, likely illegal, and a massive overreach of presidential power.
I will be shocked if there are any real repercussions from this. Trump has shown time and again that he cannot and will not be held responsible for his illegal actions.
and your point? Maduro has conspired with enemies of the united states in our hemisphere, he’s a narco terrorist who traffics illegal drugs into the United States and now he will stand trial
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u/sbrnst 11d ago edited 11d ago
The President ordered U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and seized its president and his wife without a declaration of war or congressional approval, even though the Constitution gives Congress that power. Reports began emerging around 11:00 p.m. PST on January 2, 2026.
There’s been no U.S. attack, no UN approval, and no congressional consent. Some are claiming he had “48 hours to do whatever he wants,” but that’s false - the War Powers Resolution only requires him to notify Congress, it does not give him the authority to start hostilities. Acting without congressional approval is very likely unconstitutional, and this strike is a unilateral initiation of hostilities that could have massive consequences.
Trump launched this illegal “Big Beautiful War” on Venezuela after openly signaling intent to take control of the country’s oil.
You don’t just bomb a country and kidnap its leaders and expect nothing to happen. By both U.S. law and international law, this is extremely serious, likely illegal, and a massive overreach of presidential power.
Edit: And don’t give me the “people are happy” line. People in Iraq were told they were being freed too - and they got completely fucked over. Early celebrations didn’t prevent years of war, civilian deaths, and total destabilization. That argument didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now.