While We Slept, Donald Trump Launched a War ... on Our Constitution and the Rule of Law
Americans woke up this morning in a nation no longer governed by the Constitution, but one ruled by one man.
Edwin Eisendrath hosts It’s the Democracy, Stupid on Lincoln Square and WCPT820 AM/Heartland Signal. He’s the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, a long-time management consultant, a former Chicago Alderman, HUD Regional Administrator and teacher in Chicago’s public schools. Subscribe to his Substack.
Americans awoke this morning in a new country. While we slept, Donald Trump launched a full-scale war to overthrow the regime in Iran and to disarm that nation. But it is our nation, our Constitution he has overthrown.
I pray for the people of Iran and of Israel, for our troops, and for those anywhere who might inadvertently find themselves in the sharp teeth of our out-of-control war machine.
This morning, America is no longer a democratic republic governed by the rule of law. It is a tyranny governed by a man. Everyone will cheer the end of the horrid reign of mullahs in Tehran. But everyone should weep at the fall of our great constitutional order.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution says Congress shall have the power to declare war. In common understanding it means a president cannot initiative a war. When George Bush took us into Iraq, he got an authorization to use military force (AUMF) from Congress. In fact, Congress passed three open ended authorizations, in 1991, in 2001, and in 2002.
On December 18, 2025 — just two months ago — Donald Trump signed the Defense Authorization bill that included a repeal of the 1991 and 2002 authorizations. Here’s what Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas had to say at the time:
Securing the passage of this amendment corrects this long-standing failure and sends a clear signal that the legislative branch is finally reclaiming its authority over decisions of war and peace. The era of endless, undefined war authorizations must end.
The remaining AUMF is the one passed after 9/11. It is focused on counter-terrorism and authorizes the use of force only against those who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11 attacks. Iran had no role in 9-11. The limitations of that authorization are why Bush sought additional ones to attack Iraq.
Donald Trump has no authority under law to take us to war. But he has the power. It is power exercised outside of the law, and thus a tyrannical power.
In his commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone noted that “the king has the sole prerogative of making war and peace.” The founders knew this and chose a different path.
Here is what James Madison wrote in his famous Helvidius essay:
In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. Beside the objection to such a mixture of heterogeneous powers: the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man… War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war a physical force is to be created, and it is the executive will which is to direct it. In war the public treasures are to be unlocked, and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. In war the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed. It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered, and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions, and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.
The founders understood that a President who can unilaterally declare war will do so. And he will do it not for the American people but for himself. They located the power to initiate war in Congress, to remove a powerful temptation from the presidency precisely to protect the rest of us.
Donald Trump has ignored our Constitution in many ways this past year. Courts have repeatedly declared his actions unconstitutional. Now, in ordering us into war without even so much as an explanation, let alone the legal authority to do so, he has torn it up.
Americans woke up in a new country this morning. But we are not powerless.
There are legal remedies, and litigation should begin today.
There are congressional remedies. The House and Senate should convene immediately and either declare war or end this war. They must assert the powers our Constitution reserves for them. They should impeach and remove the criminal whose high crime is nothing short of treason against the Constitution and the rule of law in America.
There are political remedies. Americans will answer the call when all else fails. We always have.
The repeated violations of our constitution and his flagrant violation of his oath to uphold the constitution are grounds for impeachment. These are treasonous acts that cannot be tolerated!
I awoke this morning after 76 years in this country to a lost pride in being an American. Fortunately I probably won't be around to watch it further sink lower.