Venezuela war powers resolution fails in Senate as 2 Republicans bow to
Trump pressure
[January 15, 2026]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers
resolution Wednesday that would have limited President Donald Trump’s
ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators
reversed course on supporting the legislation.
Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with
Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed
in heading off passage of the legislation. Two of the Republicans —
Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under
the pressure.
Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on
a Republican motion to dismiss the bill.
The outcome of the high-profile vote demonstrated how Trump still has
command over much of the Republican conference, yet the razor-thin vote
tally also showed the growing concern on Capitol Hill over the
president’s aggressive foreign policy ambitions.
Democrats forced the debate after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader
Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month
“Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a
way to be against it. It’s pretty amazing. And it’s a shame,” Trump said
at a speech in Michigan Tuesday. He also hurled insults at several of
the Republicans who advanced the legislation, calling Sen. Rand Paul of
Kentucky a “stone cold loser” and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and
Susan Collins of Maine “disasters.” Those three Republicans stuck to
their support for the legislation.
Trump’s latest comments followed earlier phone calls with the senators,
which they described as terse. The president’s fury underscored how the
war powers vote had taken on new political significance as Trump also
threatens military action to accomplish his goal of possessing
Greenland.
The legislation, even if it had cleared the Senate, had virtually no
chance of becoming law because it would eventually need to be signed by
Trump himself. But it represented both a test of GOP loyalty to the
president and a marker for how much leeway the Republican-controlled
Senate is willing to give Trump to use the military abroad. Republican
angst over his recent foreign policy moves — especially threats of using
military force to seize Greenland from a NATO ally — is still running
high in Congress.
Two Republicans reconsider
Hawley, who helped advance the war powers resolution last week, said
Trump’s message during a phone call was that the legislation “really
ties my hands.” The senator said he had a follow-up phone call with
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Monday and was told “point blank, we’re
not going to do ground troops.”
The senator added that he also received assurances that the Trump
administration will follow constitutional requirements if it becomes
necessary to deploy troops again to the South American country.
“We’re getting along very well with Venezuela,” Trump told reporters at
a ceremony for the signing of an unrelated bill Wednesday.
As senators went to the floor for the vote Wednesday evening, Young also
told reporters he was no longer in support. He said that he had
extensive conversations with Rubio and received assurances that the
secretary of state will appear at a public hearing before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
Young also shared a letter from Rubio that stated the president will
“seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting)”
if he engaged in “major military operations” in Venezuela.
The senators also said his efforts were also instrumental in pushing the
administration to release Wednesday a 22-page Justice Department memo
laying out the legal justification for the snatch-and-grab operation
against Maduro.
That memo, which was heavily redacted, indicates that the
administration, for now, has no plans to ramp up military operations in
Venezuela.
“We were assured that there is no contingency plan to engage in any
substantial and sustained operation that would amount to a
constitutional war,” according to the memo signed by Assistant Attorney
General Elliot Gaiser.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., talks with reporters outside the Senate
chamber during a vote at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Trump’s shifting rationale for military intervention
Trump has used a series of legal arguments for his campaign against
Maduro.
As he built up a naval force in the Caribbean and destroyed vessels
that were allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the Trump
administration tapped wartime powers under the global war on terror
by designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
The administration has claimed the capture of Maduro himself was
actually a law enforcement operation, essentially to extradite the
Venezuelan president to stand trial for charges in the U.S. that
were filed in 2020.
Paul criticized the administration for first describing its military
build-up in Caribbean as a counternarcotics operation but now
floating Venezuela’s vast oil reserves as a reason for maintaining
pressure.
"The bait and switch has already happened,” he said.
Trump's foreign policy worries Congress
Lawmakers, including a significant number of Republicans, have been
alarmed by Trump’s recent foreign policy talk. In recent weeks, he
has pledged that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela for years to come,
threatened military action to take possession of Greenland and told
Iranians protesting their government that “ help is on its way.”
Senior Republicans have tried to massage the relationship between
Trump and Denmark, a NATO ally that holds Greenland as a
semi-autonomous territory. But Danish officials emerged from a
meeting with Vance and Rubio Wednesday saying a “fundamental
disagreement” over Greenland remains.
"What happened tonight is a roadmap to another endless war," Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference following
the vote.
More than half of U.S. adults believe President Donald Trump has
“gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other
countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
How Republican leaders dismissed the bill
Last week's procedural vote on the war powers resolution was
supposed to set up hours of debate and a vote on final passage. But
Republican leaders began searching for a way to defuse the conflict
between their members and Trump as well as move on quickly to other
business.
Once Hawley and Young changed their support for the bill,
Republicans were able to successfully challenge whether it was
appropriate when the Trump administration has said U.S. troops are
not currently deployed in Venezuela.
“We’re not currently conducting military operations there,” said
Senate Majority Leader John Thune in a floor speech. “But Democrats
are taking up this bill because their anti-Trump hysteria knows no
bounds.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has brought a series of war powers
resolutions this year, accused Republicans of burying a debate about
the merits of an ongoing campaign of attacks and threats against
Venezuela.
"If this cause and if this legal basis were so righteous, the
administration and its supporters would not be afraid to have this
debate before the public and the United States Senate," he said in a
floor speech.
Kaine vowed to force votes on war powers resolutions that would
apply to a number of potential military conflicts, including
Greenland. House Democrats have also filed a similar war powers
resolution and can force a vote on it as soon as next week.
___
Associated Press writers Josh Goodman, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare
Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Bill Barrow in
Atlanta contributed to this report.
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