Schumer Opposes Venezuela Action While Senate Republicans Block War Powers Resolution

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has discovered the Constitution’s war powers clause, and the timing is remarkably convenient.

The New York Democrat issued a statement Saturday accusing President Donald Trump of pushing America “closer and closer to another costly foreign war” over his administration’s escalating actions against Venezuelan drug cartels. Schumer suddenly remembers that Congress holds the sole power to declare war, not the president, and he wants everyone to know about it.

“Under our Constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war — not the President — and Congress has not authorized the use of military force against Venezuela,” Schumer stated, as if he had just discovered Article I, Section 8.

Here are the facts. Trump declared Venezuelan airspace “closed in its entirety” via Truth Social, warning airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers to stay clear of the area. This followed a Federal Aviation Administration warning about a deteriorating security situation in the region. The administration has conducted strikes on suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Trump indicated during a Thanksgiving address to service members that operations against Venezuelan drug traffickers would soon expand to land-based interdiction.

The president has not ruled out sending American troops into Venezuela, though no such deployment has been announced or implemented.

Now, let us address the obvious hypocrisy. Where was Schumer’s constitutional concern when previous administrations conducted military operations without congressional declarations of war? The selective application of constitutional principles based on which party controls the White House is not principled governance. It is partisan theater.

Schumer claims Trump’s actions represent a departure from “America First” policy. This argument collapses under the slightest scrutiny. Drug cartels operating from Venezuela are directly responsible for poisoning hundreds of thousands of Americans annually with fentanyl and other narcotics. Protecting American citizens from foreign threats is the most fundamental responsibility of the federal government and the core definition of putting America first.

The minority leader warns that Americans are “tired of endless foreign wars that cost the lives of countless American service members and drain precious resources.” This concern would carry more weight if Democrats had not spent years supporting interventions in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere while offering minimal resistance to endless deployments in the Middle East under previous administrations.

Interestingly, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan effort to halt military action and drug interdiction strikes in the Caribbean, suggesting that even some Democrats recognize the necessity of confronting the cartel threat, regardless of Schumer’s grandstanding.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has defended the administration’s Caribbean strikes on alleged drug vessels, and the military operations appear focused specifically on narcotics interdiction rather than regime change or nation-building, the traditional hallmarks of “endless wars.”

Schumer calls for bipartisan cooperation to “return the power to declare war back to the people.” Noble words, but the question remains whether this represents genuine constitutional concern or political opportunism designed to hamstring a president taking decisive action against a clear threat to American lives.

The Venezuelan regime has enabled drug trafficking operations that directly harm Americans. Addressing this threat through targeted military action against cartel operations is categorically different from invading foreign nations to impose democracy or protect abstract geopolitical interests.

If Schumer genuinely believes congressional authorization is required, he should introduce legislation specifically addressing Venezuelan operations rather than issuing press releases. Otherwise, this appears to be nothing more than political posturing from a minority leader searching for relevance while a president actually confronts the drug crisis killing Americans.

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