Congress leaves Trump with unlimited war powers

The failure to pass a war authorization against the Islamic State will mean few checks on his provocative campaign vows.

For much of President Barack Obama’s second term, Congress sought to pass a formal authorization for the war against the Islamic State — both to signal the country’s resolve and to provide a check on the president’s unfettered war powers.

That failure to act now means Donald Trump will effectively have free rein to wage what he calls a global U.S. war on radical Islam, a prospect that terrifies many Democrats.

“You could easily see him wanting to ramp up the war on terror and take it to new parts of the globe,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “There are few limits on what he can do.”

Democrats like Schiff worry that without an updated legal framework to govern the war on terror, Trump could turn some of his controversial campaign rhetoric into reality — from vows to bring back waterboarding to killing families of terrorists.

For “an inexperienced president who tweets and gets angry … to have broad war-making power, it’s a dangerous place to be,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the lone member of Congress who voted against the nation’s existing war authorization, which was passed in 2001 but has not been updated since.

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