Congress Must Impeach Trump to Save World from Peevish, Lawless America

Julian Beaudion, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, recognized immediately that the U.S. invasion of Venezuela is unconstitutional:

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to declare war and to authorize the use of military force. Despite repeated efforts by bipartisan lawmakers to assert this fundamental check and balance, including war powers resolutions introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer, Tim Kaine, Rand Paul, and Adam Schiff, these efforts were blocked and denied a vote prior to this crisis.

Today’s strike appears to epitomize what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others warned against: a dangerous slide toward foreign conflict without the explicit, democratically accountable approval of the American people’s representatives [Julian Beaudion, campaign FB, 2026.01.03].

Independent candidate Brian Bengs offers a bit more pointed critique and distinguishes himself from Trump apologist Senator Mike Rounds

I spent my career in uniform teaching the Law of War to future officers. I made sure they understood the difference between strength and lawlessness.

What the U.S. just did in Venezuela crosses that line.

The Constitution is clear: only Congress can authorize war. Presidents do not get to launch military action on their own, capture foreign leaders, or drag us into another conflict without debate or accountability. When they do, it puts American service members at risk and chips away at the rule of law we swore to defend.

We have already paid the price for “forever wars.” Trillions of dollars. Countless lives. And a growing distrust in government. This is exactly how it starts again.

What’s just as disturbing is the silence from politicians who know better. Mike Rounds is South Dakota’s senator, who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. He refuses to defend Congress’s constitutional authority. That is a failure of leadership and of oath.

I’m running for the U.S. Senate because South Dakotans believe no one is above the law, not foreign dictators and not American politicians [Brian Bengs, campaign fundraising email, 2026.01.05].

Beaudion and Bengs need to take their words to their logical conclusion and support Congresswoman April McClain Delaney’s (D-Maryland) call to impeach the invader-in-chief:

I cannot stand by as my Republican colleagues allow President Trump to defy the rule of law, repeatedly overstep the authority of Congress and undermine our national security and the well-being of my fellow Americans.

Over the weekend, we saw the President – without authorization or approval from Congress, as required by our Constitution – launch an attack on Venezuela and voice his intention to ‘run’ the country. This move follows a year in which he has illegally dismantled federal agencies, conducted cruel immigration raids against our neighbors – including American citizens, instigated an unlawful trade war, called for the execution of sitting Members of Congress, and now is escalating international tensions even further with military threats against Colombia and Greenland. These individual actions are impeachable offenses in their own right, but their ever mounting cumulative impact on our country’s stability and health puts everything in a new light. I now believe that our Democratic Caucus must imminently consider impeachment proceedings.

I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and to fight unlawful behavior, and I firmly believe it is now paramount that we begin this impeachment process to end this lawlessness and restore stability and trust in our government. Our forefathers intended to create three co-equal beaches of government to provide a check and balance on lawless power seized by any single branch. It is time – full stop – for Congress to step up to the plate and stop this Administration’s unauthorized and harmful actions [Rep. April McClain Delaney, press release, 2026.01.05].

As galling and as antithetical to American interests as Republicans’ betrayal of the Constitution is their trigger-happy boss’s betrayal of Venezuela’s genuine democratic opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado in favor of retaining in power Maduro loyalists:

President Trump on Saturday said Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado “doesn’t have the support” within Venezuela to be its next leader after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and he said she was not consulted prior to the operation.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said at a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort hours after the attack. “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Trump said the administration did not talk to Machado about the attack and possibility of leading Venezuela. He leaned on Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as Maduro’s successor, who he claimed was sworn in as the country’s president. Trump said he would work with her as the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until there is a peaceful transfer of power.

“I just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what she thinks is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said. “Very simple” [Ryan Mancini, “Trump Says Machado ‘Doesn’t Have the Support’ in Venezuela, Wasn’t Consulted,” The Hill, 2026.01.03].

As is true of Trump’s entire political career, leaving Machado, whose support and respect in Venezuela helped her party win the 2024 election that Maduro overturned by fraud and would help them win even bigger now if Venezuela held a free election, out of the not-really-regime-change invasion plan was an act of peevish retribution:

This snubbing is reportedly a result of Machado not outright refusing the award, which Trump also wanted. Two sources close to the White House told The Washington Post that her decision to accept the Nobel Prize, even despite dedicating it to Trump, set the U.S. president off, leading to this current petty grudge.

“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said [Malcolm Ferguson, “Trump Snubs Top Venezuelan Opposition Leader for the Pettiest Reason,” The New Republic, 2026.01.05].

Peevishness, senility, greed, narcissism—Trump’s many awful characteristics are coalescing into a lawless, murderous foreign policy that is destroying trust in America among Venezuelans and our allies. Congress must recover its Constitutional and moral courage and step in to save America and the world from our petty and bloodthirsty dictator.