The US Senate blocked a resolution prohibiting military action in Venezuela

US Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a resolution that would have barred President Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional approval in a vote on Wednesday. The voting ended with a result of 51 “against” and 50 “for”. Reuters writes about this.

Last week, on January 8, the Senate voted to advance the resolution. This happened because five Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the document. It was passed by 52 votes to 47.

Two of the five Republicans, Josh Hawley (Missouri) and Todd Young (Indiana), ended up joining the majority in the Jan. 14 vote. The final voting result was 51 votes to 50.

As Reuters notes, the initial voting results are a rare case of Trump being convicted in the Senate, where his party has a majority of seats (53 to 47). After the initial vote, the US President sharply criticized the Republicans who supported the resolution:

“Republicans should be ashamed of the senators who just voted with Democrats to try to take away our power to fight and protect the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley and Todd Young should never be elected to public office again,” he wrote at the time on his social network Truth Social.

As The Hill notes , Trump also personally called each of the five Republican senators who supported the resolution to express his dissatisfaction with their votes. As a result, for example, Todd Young later said that he changed his mind after receiving assurances from “senior national security officials” that there were no American troops in Venezuela:

“I have also been assured that if President Trump determines that U.S. forces are needed for major military operations in Venezuela, the administration will proactively ask Congress for authorization to do so,” he said.

Opponents of the resolution insisted that it should not be adopted, since after the capture of Nicolas Maduro on January 3, the United States essentially does not have a military contingent in Venezuela and does not conduct military operations. Senate Republican leader John Thune accused Democrats of “anti-Trump hysteria.”

In turn, supporters of the adoption of the document noted that the United States has been blockading Venezuela for several months and firing at ships in the southern Caribbean. In addition, Trump also threatened possible further military action.

In a conversation with The Insider, Americanists note that the US Constitution already gives the president fairly broad powers to decide where and how to use the armed forces:

“The President may use military force without prior authorization from Congress if the military action is qualified as counterterrorism, limited or imminent military action, and necessary to maintain law and order. The Trump administration claims that the capture of Maduro was a judicial operation, not a war, so the strikes are both limited/imminent military action to ensure the safety of law enforcement, and the fight against terrorism, since Maduro is accused of narco-terrorism,” explains Americanist Alexandra Filippenko .

According to Americanist Ian Veselov , the Trump administration now has “to a certain extent a free hand”:

“Yes, Congress is responsible for declaring war and everything else, but the president already has broad powers. Plus, there is a war powers law adopted half a century ago. It allows the president to conduct military operations outside the United States within 60 days of notifying Congress. More than 60 days - Congressional authorization is required, so within two months Trump can strike both Iran and Venezuela. Congress can do little here,” says Veselov.

The vote itself, according to Filippenko, is a classic example of the dominance of one of the parties (in this case, the Republican) in the Senate. At the same time, the expert calls the refusal of some Republicans to support their leader “a demonstration of anxiety and discomfort.” Vice President J.D. Vance ultimately helped achieve a one-vote advantage (51 to 50):

“The influence of Trump, the White House and J.D. Vance has been profound. Moreover, the latter was involved in order to overcome this equality of votes. Under American law, the vice president, figuratively speaking, is the president of Congress. It is precisely for such cases that the voice of the vice president is needed. Despite the fact that the Constitution gives Congress powers in the field of war, in practice, presidents who have great influence over their party face minimal resistance,” the Americanist concludes.