The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - Venezuela and the War Powers Act || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

The Trump administration's campaign against alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling is raising some eyebrows. Let's unpack the War Powers Act and how it applies to this.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3LlgWkI

Hey all, Peter Zine here, coming to you from Colorado. And today we're going to talk about what is going on in the Southern Caribbean, specifically the Trump administration's targeting of alleged drug smuggling vessels coming out of Venezuela. A lot of people have written in asking me for a comment on the legality of this. And the best I can give you is that this is a gray area, no matter really how you look at it. According to the Constitution, the U.S. President has the authority over the armed forces. and that is largely without restriction unless in case of war, in which case Congress, by a two-thirds majority, needs to declare war.

But Congress hasn't declared a war since World War II, leaving all military policy basically in the hands of the president unless and until Congress says otherwise. Now, in 1973, Congress did say otherwise, and they passed something called the War Powers Act that says within 48 hours of any, commitment of American forces into a combat situation, the president has to brief Congress on the details and then withdraw all forces within 60 days unless the president applies and is approved

for an extension. Anything beyond that requires the two-thirds majority by Congress to actually declare a military conflict. Now, since then, every single president, including Trump 1 and Trump 2, has said that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional. But the War Powers Act was passed by a veto-proof majority over the objections of the president at the time. And so you have this conflict between the executive branch and the legislative branch. And it really means that the president still can do whatever he wants

so long as Congress does not act. And since 1973, we have not had a situation where two-thirds of the Congress has been willing, to oppose the president on military affairs, and that is where we remain today. So that leaves the president the ability to do to whatever he wants. Now, under Trump administration, notification of Congress is something that has become very weak under the best of circumstances and military affairs are no difference. There have been times in the past where the Trump administration has done something militarily

and said that when it hit the news, that was notification of Congress, which I don't think any court would back up. But again, Congress has not gotten together and had two-thirds of its members say otherwise, which is what would be necessary. In the current situation, members of the House Military Affairs Committees and the Intelligence Committees have basically been furious with the Trump administration, not just the Democrats, especially the Republicans, because the Trump people who have come in to brief them have basically provided no information and no proof that any of these ships were carrying drugs. Does that mean I think that the Trump administration is just blowing up random ships? No, because there's quite an operation going to. on down there now. We have over 10,000 American service people that are involved in this operation, and at any given time, at least eight warships. We also are flying bombers off the coast of Venezuela. So something is afoot, and the Trump administration is not sharing very many details with anyone,

especially with Congress, and that leaves all of us kind of grasping at straws. All I can tell you for certain is that unless and until Congress starts acting like Congress, the Trump administration has full leave to do whatever it wants legally. Where that takes us. I don't have enough information to say right now.