How the Decision to Start a War Became the President’s

“Since World War II, presidents of both parties have found ways to hollow out the Constitution’s constraints on their power to order military attacks. President Trump’s unilateral decision to launch a war against Iran threatens to gut nearly all of what little remains,” the New York Times reports.

“It is supposed to be a foundational principle of American democracy that unless the United States is under attack, the power to declare war is vested in Congress. But especially since the start of the Cold War, presidents of both parties have chipped away at that by claiming a right to order the military into various limited hostile situations.”