Throughout 2025, Senate Democrats, led in large part by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, repeatedly tried to advance war powers resolutions in the hope of curtailing Donald Trump’s international ambitions. In each instance, the Democratic minority fell short in the face of Republican opposition.
Last week, however, something unexpected happened: Five Senate Republicans broke ranks, voted with Democrats and advanced a war powers resolution aimed at reining in U.S. military action in Venezuela. The measure was specifically crafted to “direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.”
The bipartisan breakthrough was, however, on a procedural vote. There was still one more Senate vote necessary to approve the resolution. If the 53 members who backed the measure last week stuck together, it would move to the House for consideration.
That didn’t happen. MS NOW reported:
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans approved a procedural gambit to block the Venezuela war powers resolution from getting a final vote, stopping the bipartisan effort dead in its tracks after it appeared headed for success.
The vote was 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday night to break a tie.
Three of the five GOP senators who voted with Democrats last week — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — stuck to their guns, but two did not.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the first to fold, announcing his reversal on Wednesday morning, and Indiana’s Todd Young soon followed suit.
It’s worth appreciating why.
Almost immediately after last week’s vote, the president made no effort to hide his disgust, publishing an item to his social media platform in which he said the five Senate Republicans who voted for the resolution “should never be elected to office again.”
In the days that followed, MS NOW confirmed that Trump called each member of the quintet, berating the GOP members who defied him. The president, as MS NOW’s source summarized, was “very upset, angry, yelling.” Trump was especially animated with Young, whose phone meeting with the president was “very heated.”
On Tuesday, during remarks in Detroit, Trump continued to target the senators who’d disappointed him, slamming Paul as a “stone-cold loser” and describing Collins and Murkowski as “disasters.”
Paul, Collins and Murkowski, however, followed through on their beliefs. Hawley and Young reversed course under pressure. It’s important to emphasize that the vote was largely symbolic: Even if the war powers resolution had been approved in the Senate, it faced long odds in the GOP-led House and an inevitable presidential veto if it somehow cleared Capitol Hill. The practical consequences, in other words, were limited. But Trump wasn’t willing to tolerate any attempt to limit his authority in Venezuela — even if the Senate vote wouldn’t have actually limited his authority in Venezuela — and so he tried to scold Senate Republicans into submission. By surrendering, Hawley and Young sent an unsubtle reminder to the White House: Sometimes, with some people, bullying works. In floor remarks after the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked, “Why wouldn’t our Republican colleagues just do what Congress is supposed to do, assert our authority, and say, ‘Let’s have a debate’? Let’s say, ‘If he’s going to go any further in Venezuela, he needs congressional approval.’” The New York Democrat added, “What has happened tonight is a road map to another endless war, because this Senate, under Republican leadership, failed to assert its legitimate and needed authority.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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