• by Joe Mandese , March 2, 2026

Since the War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973, seven presidents have used the U.S. military to attack other countries 16 times without Congressional authorization.

So far, Donald Trump accounts for nearly a third of those military actions, with nearly three years left to his term as Commander-in-Chief.

Putting aside his "America first" pledge not to start any new wars, Trump's unilateral use of the military -- both foreign and domestic -- is part of a broader campaign to defy Constitutional norms and seize more power than a president is supposed to have, usually declaring some kind of "emergency" to justify them.

In fact, Trump already accounts for 28% of all "emergency" declarations made by a U.S. president since the passage of the National Emergencies Act gave the executive branch broad latitude to sidestep statutory laws governing use of the military, economic policy, communications and transportation policy, and domestic law enforcement.

With nearly a third of his time in office left to go, Trump already is weighing the declaration of a national emergency that could very well make his time in office irrelevant, seizing control of our elections.

Trump's use of emergency declarations doesn't end with his seizure of military and domestic power from Congress. It also extends to the judicial branch.

During the first two-thirds of his time in office, Trump coincidentally accounts for two-thirds of all "emergency dockets" ruled on by the Supreme Court, granting him what amounts to a bum-rush to grab judicial power too.

Commonly known as "shadow dockets," the rulings accelerate what is supposed to be a considered, slow-moving deliberative process of the High Court due to the declaration of some kind of time-is-of-the-essence emergency declaration.

Statistically speaking, Trump has disproportionally been ruling by emergency.

Practically speaking, he has been disproportionately seizing power via a bum-rush to circumvent the Constitution anywhere and everywhere he can.

Statistically speaking, Trump's campaign to flood the zone, seize more power and sidestep the Constitution should be alarming for any president.

But there is one more stat worth remembering when considering what his motives and intentions are for doing so.

He's also the only president ever convicted of a felony by a jury of his peers.

Lastly, you've probably already seen this by now, but it's worth remembering that Trump previously took a position against a U.S. president unilaterally using the military to invade Iran, advocating diplomacy instead.

The irony is that in 2018, Trump pulled out of a diplomatic agreement negotiated by Barack Obama -- the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- in 2015, despite the fact that Iran was honoring it.

It's enough to make you furious, and epically so.