In a close vote on Capitol Hill, the US House of Representatives narrowly rejected a resolution that would have barred President Donald Trump from deploying American troops to Venezuela. The tied vote highlighted the tenuous hold that House Speaker Mike Johnson has on his party’s slim majority, as well as growing pushback within the Republican-controlled Congress against the President’s aggressive foreign policy actions in the Western Hemisphere.
The resolution, backed by Democrats, aimed to invoke the War Powers Act to prevent Trump from sending US military forces to Venezuela without congressional approval. It fell just short of the majority needed for passage, with two Republican representatives, Don Bacon of Nebraska and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, joining all Democrats in supporting the measure.
The vote came after a tense back-and-forth on the House floor, with Democrats accusing Republican leaders of violating procedural rules to keep the vote open until a GOP congressman, Wesley Hunt of Texas, could rush back to the Capitol to cast the decisive vote against the resolution.
The defeat of the resolution is the latest test of how much leeway Republicans in Congress are willing to give a president who campaigned on reducing foreign entanglements but has increasingly turned to military options to impose his will abroad. So far, nearly all Republicans have declined to check Trump’s actions through war powers votes, despite growing concerns about his aggressive posturing towards US allies and adversaries alike.
“Donald Trump is reducing the United States to a regional bully with fewer allies and more enemies,” warned Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, during the floor debate.
The vote came just a week after the Senate narrowly dismissed a similar war powers resolution on Venezuela, only after the Trump administration persuaded two Republican senators to withdraw their earlier support.
Trump’s recent military actions and threats, including his insistence on possessing Greenland over Denmark’s objections, have alarmed some Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have mounted some of the most outspoken criticism of the president’s foreign policy since he took office.
However, the House vote suggests Trump still maintains the backing of most Republicans in Congress, even as concerns grow over his unilateral approach to global affairs. As Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, argued, Democrats brought the war powers resolution to a vote out of “spite” for the president.
With Trump’s aggressive posture towards Venezuela and other global hotspots continuing, the debate over the limits of the president’s war powers is unlikely to subside anytime soon.
