Trump Beats Back GOP Rebellion on War Powers as Two Pivotal Senators Flip

Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a final vote on the war powers resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s military authority in Venezuela, ending the push before it could reach the floor.

The resolution gained unexpected steam last week after five Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Todd Young, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — joined Democrats to help advance it, raising the prospect of a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president’s military policy.

But the momentum quickly stalled under Trump’s pressure, and the effort was struck down in dramatic fashion Wednesday night when Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote.

To block the measure from reaching the floor, GOP leadership raised a procedural point of order that argued the resolution no longer met the requirements for a privileged vote under the War Powers Act, claiming there were no ongoing hostilities in Venezuela to justify it. Without that protection, Republicans were able to block the resolution without voting it down directly.

The move gave uneasy Republicans like Hawley and Young an off-ramp to back off without directly reversing their earlier vote.

Before the vote, the Trump administration sought to allay concerns raised by some Republican senators about how it would handle an escalation in Venezuela.

In a letter this week to Young’s office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would request congressional authorization if it planned to “introduce US Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operations in Venezuela.”

The assurances were enough to convince Young that a formal war powers resolution was unnecessary, the senator wrote in a statement on X. Young added that Rubio had agreed to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the coming weeks to provide an update on operations in Venezuela.

“I had to accept that this was all a communications exercise,” Young told reporters before the Wednesday vote. “To have the secretary of state be at my disposal — I mean countless phone conversations and text exchanges — was very reassuring to me.”

The Wednesday vote was also a clear win for Trump, who spent the last few days railing against the measure. He publicly lashed out at the five Republicans by name during a Tuesday speech in Detroit, and said last week that they “should never be elected to office again.” Behind the scenes, top officials followed up with calls and meetings, pressing senators to fall back in line.

The resolution, led by Sen. Tim Kaine with Paul’s support, would have required the president to seek congressional approval before launching any new military operations in or against Venezuela.

Supporters said the resolution was needed after months of U.S. boat strikes and military buildup off Venezuela’s coast, which led to the raid that captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and a White House pledge to “run” the country and manage its oil sector for the foreseeable future.

“It’s disappointing that my colleagues let the president sort of beat them into submission after they voted last week,” Kaine told reporters following the vote.

“However, we accomplished some things within 12 hours after the vote last week,” Kaine continued. “In order to get Sen. Young’s vote and Sen. Hawley’s vote, the White House made a number of public commitments to them about Rubio coming, finally, to do a public hearing before Foreign Relations and the need for formal authorization if any boots on the ground are needed in Venezuela. These are not sufficient for me, but these were not things that we would have had had we not filed this resolution.”

The administration argues that the operation falls under the president’s existing authority, pointing to a classified Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo backing that up. Officials have also framed the Maduro raid as a law-enforcement mission rather than an act of war.