After a surprise U.S. military operation plucked Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their own country, both Democrats and some Republicans have questioned the legality of President Trump ordering the capture of another country’s leader.
Asked for comment on the issue, American Family Radio host Jenna Ellis told AFN it is true Congress has the legal authority to declare war.
“What's generally happening here is that, for so long, we have seen the legislature just cede so much of their power over to the executive branch,” Ellis said. “There hasn't really been a check and balance on that power.”
That congressional authority falls under the War Powers Act, passed in 1973 and signed by President Richard Nixon. That law requires the U.S. president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying the U.S. military to attack an enemy of the United States.
After the surprise arrest of Maduro, however, Ellis said, Trump’s critics are now citing congressional authority when previous U.S. presidents have been doing for the last 100 years. That is nothing but “selective enforcement” based on politics and who is in power in the White House at the time, she observed.
One example of that politics is Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat. After criticizing President Trump for an "illegal act of war" to replace Maduro, a 2024 interview surfaced from MSNBC. In that interview, Van Hollen said Maduro did not lawfully win re-election and therefore the U.S. should attempt to remove him.
