Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to reject a war powers resolution that would have limited President Donald Trump’s ability to launch further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation.
Trump exerted intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined Democrats to push the resolution last week and ultimately succeeded in avoiding passage of the legislation. Two Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — have buckled under pressure.
Vice President J.D. Vance had to break a 50-50 deadlock in the Senate over a Republican motion to reject the bill.
The result of the high-profile vote showed how Trump still has control over much of the GOP convention, yet the slim number of votes also demonstrated growing concern on Capitol Hill about the president’s aggressive foreign policy ambitions.
Democrats were forced into the debate after US forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month.
“We have here one of the most successful attacks ever, and they found a way to counter it,” Trump said in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday. “It’s absolutely amazing. It’s unfortunate.” He also hurled insults at several Republicans who advanced the legislation, calling Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky a “cold loser” and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine “disasters.” These three Republicans have maintained their support for the legislation.
Trump’s latest statements came after previous phone calls with senators, which they described as brief. The president’s outburst highlights how the war powers vote has taken on new political significance as Trump also threatens military action to achieve his goal of controlling Greenland.
This legislation, even if it passed the Senate, had no chance of becoming law because it would eventually need Trump’s signature. But it represents a test of GOP loyalty to the president and a sign of how much the Republican-controlled Senate is willing to grant Trump use of the military abroad.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, January 9, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Republican leaders move to reject the bill
Republican Senate leaders are trying to defuse the conflict between their members and Trump as well as quickly move on to other business. On Wednesday evening, they were moving to reject the measure, arguing that it had nothing to do with the current situation in Venezuela. This measure was subject to a vote.
In a speech Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed frustration when he questioned whether this war powers resolution should be prioritized under the Senate’s rules.
“We do not have forces on the ground in Venezuela. We are not currently conducting military operations there,” he said. “But Democrats are adopting this bill because their anti-Trump hysteria knows no bounds.”
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who has introduced a series of war powers resolutions this year, accused Republicans of burying a debate about the merits of the ongoing campaign of attacks and threats against Venezuela.
“If this reason and this legal basis are so valid, the administration and its supporters will not be afraid to hold this discussion before the public and the US Senate,” he said in a speech.
Two Republicans are reconsidering
Hawley, who helped push the war powers resolution last week, said Trump’s message during the phone call was that the legislation “really ties my hands.” The senator said he had a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and it was “really positive.”
Hawley said Rubio told him on Monday, “Frankly, we’re not sending ground troops.” The senator said he also received assurances that the Trump administration would follow constitutional requirements if it became necessary to again deploy troops to the South American country.
“We get along very well with Venezuela,” Trump told reporters at a signing ceremony for an unrelated bill on Wednesday.
As senators went to vote, Young also told reporters that he no longer supported it. He said he had extensive conversations with Rubio and received assurances that the Secretary of State would appear at a public hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Young also shared a message from Rubio stating that the president “will seek advance congressional authorization (circumstances permitting)” if he participates in “major military operations” in Venezuela.
What is a War Powers Resolution?
Under the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. But US presidents have long been expanding their authority to use the power of the US military around the world.
The trend since World War II allows Congress to evade responsibility for the war and put all the risks on the president, said Peter Mansour, an Ohio State University professor, military historian and retired U.S. Army colonel who has served multiple combat tours.
In the post-Vietnam War era, lawmakers attempted to restore some of their authority over war powers through the War Powers Resolution of 1973. It allows lawmakers to hold votes on resolutions to restrict the president from using military force in specific conflicts without congressional approval.
“Politicians tend to evade responsibility for anything, but this traps you in wars forever,” Mansour said.
Trump’s changing justifications for military intervention
Trump used a series of legal arguments to campaign against Maduro.
While building a naval force in the Caribbean and destroying ships that were allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the Trump administration exploited the war powers of the global war on terrorism by designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
The administration claimed that the arrest of Maduro himself was actually a law enforcement operation, essentially to extradite the Venezuelan president to stand trial on charges in the United States that were filed in 2020.
In a classified briefing on Tuesday, senators reviewed the Trump administration’s not-yet-revealed legal opinion on the use of the military in the operation. It has been described as a lengthy document.
But lawmakers, including a large number of Republicans, have been alarmed by Trump’s recent foreign policy talk. In recent weeks, he has pledged that the United States will “run” Venezuela for years to come, threatened military action to seize control of Greenland, and told Iranians protesting their government that “help is on the way.”
Senior Republicans tried to massage the relationship between Trump and Denmark, a NATO ally that considers Greenland a semi-autonomous region. But Danish officials emerged from a meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Rubio on Wednesday saying a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remained.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s latest aggression amounts to a “dangerous drift toward endless war.”
More than half of American adults believe President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
House Democrats have also introduced a similar war powers resolution and could force a vote on it next week.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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