Deep Dive: Over 30 Times US Presidents Used Military Force Without a Declaration of War
Democratic lawmakers and some in the media are arguing that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by ordering the strike on Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend.
But history is on his side in his use of force without seeking congressional approval. In fact, the very nature of such a military operation requires an element of surprise that the Trump administration would have lost by going through Congress.
In voicing her opposition to the operation afterward, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media platform X, “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers.”
She further argued that impeachment was the appropriate response.
The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers.
He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.
It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 22, 2025
Article II of the Constitution names the president as “Commander in Chief” of the U.S. armed forces. Meanwhile, Article I grants Congress the power to “declare war.”
Trump directing the military to neutralize Iran’s nuclear sites is not taking the U.S. to war. It is protecting Americans and our allies from a regime that has attacked and killed our troops multiple times and has called for our annihilation.
Iran and Israel are at war. They are trading military blows. We just intervened to destroy the nuclear sites.
American history is replete with examples of presidents taking such military actions without congressional approval.
Conservative commentator Marina Medvin compiled a list of over 30 instances.
Military actions are not the same thing as war—just like wartime casualties are not the same thing as “genocide.”
Here is a list of military actions conducted by US presidents dating back to our founders’ time. None were declared wars. None were approved by Congress.
1801–1805:…
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) June 22, 2025
One came very early into the history of the republic, when President Thomas Jefferson ordered the U.S. Navy, including the Marines, to take on the Muslim Barbary pirates operating off the coast of North Africa, who were attacking American merchant vessels.
This is where the line “to the shores of Tripoli” originates from in the Marine Corps hymn.
In more recent history, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy in 1941 to protect British ships traversing the Atlantic against attacks from Nazi Germany’s U-boats.
The U.S. had not declared war on Germany, but FDR’s decision made a military encounter with the Germans far more likely.
Closer to Trump’s decision to take out Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites, President John F. Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade Cuba in 1962 after the Soviet Union deployed nuclear weapons there.
JFK risked war (maybe even nuclear war) with the USSR by confronting a Soviet ship attempting to break through the “quarantine” of the island.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes against Libya after it was determined that the rogue nation under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi was responsible for conducting a terrorist bomb attack targeting U.S. military personnel stationed in Germany.
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton ordered air strikes in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq.
In 2011, President Barack Obama intervened militarily to help topple Gaddafi’s regime.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 23, 2025
During President Joe Biden’s time in office, he ordered air strikes against Syria and Yemen.
George Washington Law School professor Jonathan Turley noted in a Sunday post that while Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued that Trump exceeded his authority by not seeking congressional approval, there were no such claims when Obama intervened in the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
NPR continues to make the case for defunding. This morning, it ran a long segment on war powers and how Trump is trying to expand his unchecked authority. It never even mentions that past presidents ordered even greater attacks without prior approval. https://t.co/Zx4pqvR2Kc
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 23, 2025
Nor did they have problems with Clinton’s multiple military interventions in the 1990s.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and others are calling for the impeachment of Trump for striking Iran. He is certainly no Obama. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs on Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan in 2016 alone.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 23, 2025
So in the end, all this is political theater wrapped in constitutional rhetoric in an attempt to give it more gravity.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
