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CounterPunch Exclusives

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Stretching Presidential Power

Donald Trump has made waging war more centered than ever before on presidential prerogative. The same president who once fulminated against his predecessors’ penchant for going to war has turned into an imperial leader who can’t get enough of it. He has not merely built on past violations of law and the Constitution to make war. He has expanded presidential authority in exceptionally dangerous ways, taking advantage not only of Republican majorities in Congress but also of the Supreme Court’s decision that grants the President broad immunity on his actions.

Let’s be clear: Every President since World War II has tried to stretch his authority to act abroad. Whether we’re talking about Truman in Korea, Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam, Nixon in Cambodia, George W. Bush in Iraq, or now Donald Trump in Iran, all abused presidential power. The President’s role as commander in chief has for a long time meant the power to deploy US forces wherever he judges “national security” to be in danger—and then challenge critics to reverse his decision.

Deploying power is extraordinarily expansive, since “US forces” may include the CIA, corporate executives, special forces, mercenaries, and other agents besides the regular armed forces. Those agents have sought to topple governments, assassinated and kidnapped government leaders, tortured opponents, and bought off political parties and military leaders. In all these cases, Presidents have typically dispensed with legal concerns in determining when, where, and how the US will intervene abroad.

When it comes to war making and other uses of force, the Trump regime—for that is what it is—has outdone its predecessors in several respects: ignoring the Constitution, sidestepping Congress and allies on prior consultation, controlling information, defying laws governing the use of force, and making war a religious venture.

The Constitution’s grant of war making authority may mean little if a President decides that the use of US power abroad isn’t a war. Trump has done exactly that—first, by authorizing attacks on alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, followed by the kidnapping of President Nicolas........

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