April 24, 2026
When it comes to the war in Iran, President Trump says he’s not putting any timeline on ending it, but he may be forced to very soon because of a legal deadline creeping up next week. As of now, Trump says he has all the time in the world.
55:22 I’m not under any pressure whatsoever. Our ships are locked and loaded. We have much higher quality equipment. The war, or military operation.
58:18 I guess it was right because I said it was four to six weeks. I don’t want to rush it because you guys are. I want to take my time. I have plenty of time. I want to get a great deal. Lunatics with nuclear weapons.
Well, it’s possible by April 29th the president could have only two options: end the war with Iran or get approval to continue it from Congress.
So before I tell you all about what’s going on and what this legal deadline is, I want to thank my paid FactsHQ subscribers for overwhelmingly voting for this story as the bonus this week. If you want to vote on the next bonus story, make sure you follow these easy steps and become a paid subscriber too. It is because of my paid FactsHQ subscribers that I am able to continue to do this work for you every single day. Without them, this channel would disappear. So if you want to support my work, and only if you can, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Okay, so to understand this deadline, we first need to look at the War Powers Resolution. That’s where this deadline comes from. That law does a whole bunch of things. One of those things is a requirement that a president must remove U.S. military forces from any conflict that Congress has not authorized within 60 days of the start of that conflict. This war with Iran started on February 28, so 60 days would be April 29.
Now, according to the law, the only way the president is allowed to keep the U.S. military in that conflict beyond those 60 days is if (1) Congress has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has passed another law giving the president another 60 days, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States.
Now, there’s one other part of this. The law says the president can extend this initial 60-day deadline for another 30 days, but only if the president tells Congress in writing that U.S. troops cannot be removed immediately because doing so would create an unavoidable military safety risk.
Now, that’s pretty black and white and pretty clear. Between this law and the Constitution, which says Congress is the only body that has the power to declare war, it would seem that the clock is ticking on this war with Iran unless Trump can somehow get Congress to pass an authorization to keep it going. But here’s the reality.
One, you should know that since this law was enacted in the early 1970s, all presidents have said it’s unconstitutional. They’ve argued that it infringes on their constitutional right as commander in chief of the United States military. The Supreme Court has never weighed in on this issue.
And two, if Congress wants to enforce this deadline, that’s going to mean not only Democrats but also Republicans are going to have to push back on President Trump. So will they? Well, so far, Democrats in both the House and the Senate have repeatedly brought up war powers resolutions that would limit Trump’s ability to continue this war with Iran. So far, all of those resolutions have failed. Republicans have refused to get involved.
However, this 60-day deadline is a different story. There are several Republicans—most notably Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and John Curtis—who believe that the president is going to have to get authorization from Congress if he plans to take this war beyond those 60 days. Senator Curtis even posted this lengthy opinion to his website about it, saying, “I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval. I take this position for two reasons—one is historical, and one is constitutional.”
But it’s going to take more than five Republicans in the Senate and maybe a handful in the House to enforce this 60-day deadline. The reality is the majority of House and Senate Republicans don’t want to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole. They don’t want to get sideways with Trump before the midterm election, and they don’t want to be forced to cast a vote to continue a very unpopular war before the midterms. The off-ramp is many Republicans are fully expecting Trump to request that 30-day extension that is allowed in the law so he can keep this war up and get to the deal he’s been talking about. But that sets up one more pretty solid deadline on May 29th that’s going to be very difficult to wiggle out of—unless, of course, the war is over by then, in which case the War Powers Act is irrelevant.
Read the War Powers Act of 1973 here.
Read Sen. Curtis’ opinion here.
