Two senators flipped after being promised Trump would follow rules they voted not to require

JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie Wednesday night to kill a bipartisan war powers resolution that would have required Trump to get congressional approval before further military action in Venezuela.

The resolution died because two Republican senators – Josh Hawley and Todd Young – flipped their votes after receiving assurances from the Trump administration that they would totally follow the Constitution.

So they voted against requiring the administration to follow the Constitution.

Let me say that again because it’s important.

Hawley and Young were concerned enough about Trump’s war powers that they voted to advance a resolution limiting them. Then Trump’s team said “don’t worry, we’ll follow the rules.” And Hawley and Young said “oh okay, never mind then” and voted to kill the very resolution designed to make sure the administration follows those rules.

Make it make sense.

Last week, five Republicans voted with Democrats to advance this resolution. The vote was 52-47. Those five – Hawley, Young, Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski – said Congress has a constitutional role in declaring war and maybe Trump shouldn’t be able to unilaterally invade countries.

Wild position, I know.

Trump was, predictably, furious. He went on Truth Social and said all five “should never be elected to office again.” He called them out by name during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, calling Murkowski and Collins “disasters” and Paul a “stone cold loser.”

But the real pressure happened behind closed doors. Trump called each senator personally. The calls were described as “direct but cordial” with most of them. With Susan Collins – who’s up for reelection this year – Trump “sharply criticized her and raised his voice.” One GOP senator described it as a “profanity-laced rant.”

Here’s where the logic gets fun.

By Wednesday morning, Hawley announced he was flipping. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had given him assurances that there are no U.S. troops in Venezuela and that the administration would seek congressional approval before any major military operations.

Let’s unpack that.

Hawley voted for a resolution requiring Trump to seek congressional approval for military action. Then Rubio promised Trump would seek congressional approval for military action. So Hawley voted against requiring Trump to seek congressional approval for military action.

Because he’d been assured Trump would do the thing anyway.

Which raises an extremely obvious question: if Trump was planning to follow the Constitution and get congressional approval for future military operations, why did he call senators personally to threaten their political careers over a resolution that would have required him to do exactly that?
Why the “profanity-laced rant” with Collins? Why attack them on Truth Social? Why call Paul a “stone cold loser” and say they all “should never be elected to office again”?

If the resolution was unnecessary because Trump was going to follow the rules anyway, the appropriate response would have been “fine, whatever, pass your symbolic resolution.” Not “I will end your political careers if you vote for this.”
The panic tells you everything you need to know about the promises.

Young’s explanation is even better. He said he’d received “fairly extensive personal assurances” and pushed back on criticism that he’d caved to pressure. “I think we played our hand well,” he told reporters.

His hand being: vote yes, get yelled at by the president, get promised the president will do the thing you wanted him to do anyway, then vote no on requiring him to do that thing.

That’s not playing your hand well. That’s folding your hand because someone scary looked at you.

The administration’s argument for why this resolution shouldn’t pass? There are currently no U.S. troops in Venezuela, so there’s nothing to worry about.

This is technically true. The U.S. conducted a surprise military raid on January 3rd, kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, transported them to the U.S. to face trial, and killed as many as 80 people including Cuban security personnel. But no boots on the ground right now, so all good.

Trump and Rubio acknowledged they didn’t notify Congress before that operation. Rubio said “this was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on.” Trump was more direct: “Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers.”

So to recap: Trump already conducted military action without congressional approval. He says he didn’t notify Congress because they leak. When Congress tries to pass a resolution requiring approval for future military action, Trump calls senators personally to threaten them. Two senators flip after being promised Trump will seek approval anyway. Those same senators then vote to kill the resolution that would have required that approval.

The logic is airtight if you don’t think about it for even three seconds.

Here’s the thing that should terrify you: this establishes the precedent. Trump can conduct military operations without congressional approval. When Congress tries to reassert its constitutional authority, he threatens their careers. Some senators fold after getting verbal assurances that mean nothing. And the whole thing gets dismissed as partisan hysteria.

The Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war specifically to prevent exactly this – a president with unchecked authority to deploy military force wherever and whenever he wants. That check is now functionally meaningless because Senate Republicans will accept “I promise I’ll ask next time” as a substitute for actual legal requirements.

If Trump’s actions were legal and constitutional, he wouldn’t need to call senators to kill a resolution affirming his obligation to follow the Constitution. If his administration planned to seek congressional approval anyway, there would be no reason to fight this resolution. The fact that he fought it this hard tells you exactly how much those assurances are worth.

Cool, great, love it here.

SOURCES:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/15/us-senate-defeats-war-powers-resolution-designed-to-rein-in-trump

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vance-casts-tiebreaking-vote-kill-venezuela-war-powers/story?id=129219762

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-blocks-measure-restrict-venezuela-strikes-trump-flips-two-repub-rcna253836

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-venezuela-war-powers-vote-trump-pressure-republicans/

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5689992-hawley-young-reverse-venezuela-resolution/

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/politics/trump-venezuela-war-powers-senate

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-threatened-gop-senators-voted-war-powers-resolution-angry-calls-rcna253491

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-senate-expected-to-hold-vote-on-war-powers-resolution