President Donald Trump is facing a midnight deadline to secure congressional authorisation for the US war against Iran, though the looming cutoff is not expected to rein in his military plans.
The 60-day clock, triggered when Trump notified Congress of attacks in early March, requires the administration to begin winding down hostilities unless lawmakers authorise the use of force.
With no such approval in place, the Friday deadline sets up a direct constitutional clash between the White House and Congress.
Democrats say the president is already on shaky legal ground — and will be in clear violation once the threshold passes.
“After we cross that 60-day threshold, there can be no more doubts that he’s violating the War Powers Act,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, urging Republicans to help end the conflict.
The administration disputes that interpretation, arguing the clock was effectively paused by a ceasefire announced last month.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers on Thursday the government believes “the 60-day clock pauses or stops” during a halt in fighting — a claim Democrats reject as unsupported by the law.
With tens of thousands of US troops deployed in the Middle East and mounting economic and political costs at home, the dispute presents a high-stakes test of Congress’s authority over war powers, more than 50 years after the law was passed in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Senators voted on Thursday to reject a resolution aimed at curbing Trump’s authority, the latest in a series of failed attempts by Democrats to force an end to the conflict.
