President Donald Trump ordered U.S. military strikes against Iran without prior congressional authorisation, and key members of the U.S. Congress say they were not given intelligence briefings before the operation began.
Several lawmakers strongly criticised the decision as a violation of constitutional and statutory war powers. According to Reuters, members of Congress including Democrats and some Republicans had attempted to pass resolutions to restrict the president’s ability to strike Iran without lawmakers’ approval, but those efforts failed before the military action unfolded.
Lawmakers emphasised that only Congress has the constitutional authority to declare war, and they said they were not provided with substantive intelligence justifying the strikes before they occurred.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others reiterated that Congress had not been consulted nor had it authorised the use of military force. Jeffries told PBS NewsHour that taking military action without Congressional approval would be “reckless…dangerous…harmful to America’s national security interests,” emphasizing that Congress had not been consulted before the strikes.
Lawmakers also raised concerns about the administration’s public justification for the strikes, pointing to reporting that key claims, such as assertions that Iran was close to developing long‑range missiles capable of striking the United States, were not supported by current U.S. intelligence assessments. A Reuters report cited multiple sources familiar with intelligence reports saying there was no recent evidence that Iran was nearing the capability to field intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Republican critics echoed constitutional concerns, with some noting that the lack of advance notification or briefing to Congress undermined the system of checks and balances. Both parties said they expected to pursue oversight hearings to compel the administration to explain the decision‑making process and the intelligence that informed it.
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