Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., defended President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities on Newsmax Sunday, saying the President fulfilled his legal duty under the War Powers Act by notifying congressional leadership in advance.
Donalds said Trump complied with the War Powers Act when he ordered recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, arguing that proper congressional notification was given and national security was preserved.
“What we know is that the president did notify House leadership, Senate leadership, about what was going to occur,” Donalds said during an interview on Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.”
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of initiating military action and limits engagement without authorization to 60 days, with a 30-day withdrawal period. Critics of the Iran operation have questioned whether those conditions were met.
“And in my opinion, it [that notice] does count,” Donalds said, referring to the timely notification of congressional leaders. “And then he went ahead and ordered the strikes on those nuclear facilities in Iran.”
The congressman, a House Oversight and Accountability Committee member, defended the decision to notify only a select group of lawmakers before the strike, citing risks to operational security.
“Let’s bring this into the real world,” Donalds said. “What the White House knows and what every member of Congress knows is that members of Congress – they leak all the time. Right? Adam Schiff was leaking to MSNBC and CNN all the time. This is information that was critical. It was sensitive. And actually, in my opinion, informing all members of Congress would have put our service members in harm’s way.”
Donalds emphasized that the administration was not launching a broader military campaign, which he said would require further congressional action.
“If you want to talk about war powers resolutions, that is if we are going to actually extend ourselves into a long-standing conflict with the Iranian regime. That is not the viewpoint of the administration,” he said. “What the administration has been very clear on is the nuclear program, the nuclear sites, in particular, were of grave national security interests.”
He credited Trump with taking unprecedented action to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We have been telling the Iranians, really for decades now, that they cannot have a nuclear weapon. And Donald Trump is the first president to actually do something about that,” Donalds said. “Informing Congress the way some of my colleagues are talking would have put our troops in harm’s way.”
He added, “It would have actually alerted the ayatollahs because I truly believe that information would have got leaked. And that’s not in our national interest. And so the President had to act accordingly.”
“We know what the Iranians have done with their proxy fighters in Hamas and Hezbollah that have targeted Israel with impunity for decades,” he said. “The Iranian regime is a terrorist regime. They cannot have nuclear weapons.”
“Donald Trump wants to make sure we have peace in the region,” Donalds said. “And you cannot negotiate peace with a regime like Iran that has nuclear payloads. It’s that simple.”
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