Hegseth Tells Senate: Trump Can Restart Iran Strikes Without Congress — War Powers Clock Be Damned

The New Development

The 60-day War Powers Resolution clock already ran out. The administration already declared hostilities "ceased." And now Hegseth is on Capitol Hill telling senators that none of that matters if Trump decides to restart the war.

Hegseth made these comments Tuesday at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

This goes beyond the authorization debate. The White House is explicitly claiming unlimited unilateral authority to re-enter armed conflict with Iran at will, without a congressional vote.

What Hegseth Actually Said

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pressed Hegseth directly: if Trump wanted to recommence strikes, does he have the authority?

"Should the president make the decision to recommence, we would have all of the authorities necessary to do so," Hegseth told the committee, according to CNBC.

Murkowski followed up, asking whether a formal Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress would at least be helpful to the president.

Hegseth's answer: no.

"Our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article 2," he said — citing the constitutional section defining presidential power.

A Republican senator offered to hand the White House a political lifeline — a congressional blessing for future strikes — and Hegseth turned it down flat.

Why This Is Bigger Than Last Week

Previous coverage flagged the bipartisan grilling Hegseth received over the original authorization question and the $29 billion cost. That concerned the past war.

This concerns the next one.

The administration declared hostilities with Iran ended earlier in May, according to CNBC. That declaration allowed them to sidestep the War Powers Resolution's 60-day consent requirement. Legally questionable, but internally consistent.

Now Hegseth is saying that same administration can restart those hostilities without going back to Congress at all. The ceasefire isn't a reset button on the legal clock. It's being used as both an escape hatch and a launch pad simultaneously.

The Ceasefire Is Not a Peace Deal

According to CNBC, the U.S. and Iran are still "at loggerheads in negotiations" and operating under a "shaky ceasefire." The Strait of Hormuz — which carried 20% of the world's oil before the conflict — remains locked down by Iran. Gas prices in the U.S. have spiked. Oil prices are elevated globally.

The war is in its third month. It is not over.

The administration calling it "ceased" while simultaneously reserving the right to restart strikes conflates a ceasefire with a legal conclusion.

What Congress Is Actually Doing

Murkowski's push for an AUMF isn't political theater. It reflects that Republicans on Capitol Hill have questions about the executive branch's legal interpretation here.

She's not a Democrat trying to kneecap Trump. She's a Republican senator from Alaska trying to give the president a clean legal foundation — and Hegseth declined.

Center-left outlets like CNBC have covered the facts accurately but framed this as a Trump administration power grab without noting Republican concern. Conservative media has largely ignored the constitutional implications.

Both approaches miss the central issue: this is about institutional authority, not party loyalty.

The $1.5 Trillion Elephant in the Room

Hegseth was technically there to testify on the administration's $1.5 trillion FY2027 defense budget request, according to CNBC. The most expensive defense budget in American history, proposed during an active conflict with costs already past $29 billion.

The budget hearing got completely overshadowed by the Iran war questions.

Taxpayers deserve to know both things are happening: an open-ended legal claim to restart a war, and a historic budget request to fund that capacity.

The Constitutional Bottom Line

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was passed specifically because Congress watched presidents fight wars without authorization — Vietnam being the defining example. It requires the president to seek congressional approval for sustained military force beyond 60 days.

Every president since 1973 has pushed the boundaries of that law. Trump is doing it too.

But the new wrinkle — claiming a declared ceasefire resets the clock while simultaneously reserving the right to restart strikes without authorization — is a legal theory that would nullify the War Powers Resolution entirely. Start a war, pause it, start again, pause it, indefinitely. Never need Congress once.

Apply this standard consistently across administrations.

What It Means for You

Gas prices are already up. The Strait of Hormuz is still choked. A second round of strikes could happen at Trump's sole discretion, with no congressional vote, no formal AUMF, and no clear legal deadline.

The ceasefire holding today is the only thing standing between current costs and a whole new round of military expenditure. According to Pete Hegseth's testimony, the person deciding whether that ceasefire holds isn't Congress — it's one man in the White House.