A Trump tweet today These Media Posts will serv
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These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!
So far, so good. But the real beauty of Sunday's Trumpian Twitter storm was his reminder to Congress — or more accurately, his reminder to the Democrats in Congress — that the Constitution grants the president, as commander in chief and head of foreign policy, the sole power to respond to sudden attacks.
The long version of this power is that when the Drafters wrote the Constitution, the topic on August 17, 1787 was whether to give Congress broad authority to use military force by stating in Art. I §8 that Congress has the power to "make war." James Madison, however, objected because Congress is a deliberative body that cannot by its nature react quickly. The Drafters agreed with Madison's take on things and changed the proposed language to give Congress the power to "declare war." The Constitution, therefore, is specifically written to give the president authority to respond to "sudden attack."