When Barack Obama bombed Libya in 2011, a number of conservative voices spoke out against the president starting an unconstitutional war. Those Republicans insisted that presidents must go through Congress to declare war, as Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution requires.
As James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson in a 1798 letter:
“The Constitution supposes, what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature.”
Neoconservative talk host Mark Levin thought Madison was ridiculous, however. Levin said of Obama’s unilateral decision to start a war with Libya, “I don’t believe in politicizing the Constitution. I believe the Constitution is the rock of this society. So all this talk about the attacks on Libya are unconstitutional because we don’t have a declaration of war, that’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Levin believes that any president can start wars at any time and for any reason, without consulting anyone. The elected members of Congress have no say and should have no say.
Levin’s advocacy for war is bipartisan. When conservative Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), along with then-Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), insisted in 2020 that President Donald Trump must first come to Congress before taking military action abroad, Levin said, “So to watch Mike Lee and Rand Paul and Matt Gaetz and others acting as if it’s constitutional really is quite appalling to me.”
“Appalling,” he said. But what if presidents want to make peace and not war?
That is when Mark Levin insists that presidents need congressional approval.
…Or at least he does now. As it’s being reported that President Donald Trump is close to a nuclear deal with Iran, Levin has been screaming from the hilltops on Twitter/X that no such deal can happen with Congress approving it.
Senator Lee agreed with Levin. Strangely, yet consistently, unlike Levin, Lee also thinks presidents must consult Congress before going to war.
However, the John Quincy Adams Society’s Executive Director John Allen Gay disagrees with Levin, believing presidents can make foreign policy agreements on their own.
It’s a debate. But right now, I don’t care about it.
I do care that neocons think presidents don’t need Congress to wage war, but definitely need Congress if peace might happen. That doesn’t make any sense.
Libertarian economist Robert Murphy shared Levin’s post about his sudden obsession with congressional authority regarding a nuclear deal with Iran, adding:
and likewise, before we bomb iran, we definitely need congress to weigh in on it
i read that somewhere once when i was a student at hillsdale college https://t.co/R1oWxtUsD8
— Robert P. Murphy (@BobMurphyEcon) May 27, 2025
He was mocking Levin, and rightly so.
This is not new for neocons.
In 2021, neoconservative then-Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) said, “It’s another example of the executive branch acting unilaterally without consulting Congress. This won’t be the first or last time that Congress’s war powers are trampled by the White House.”
Cheney was complaining about Joe Biden withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
At no time in her entire adult life did Liz Cheney believe an American president of either major party needed to consult Congress before taking military action.
But ending a war or attaining peace? Congress must definitely sort that out.
Neoconservatives love war. It is who they are. It is what they are. They care more about getting their wars than the Constitution, the health and well being of the American military, and even actual U.S. national security.
They want war so much that they will make any argument necessary to get it. If Levin thinks a newfound desire for constitutional congressional authority might work in his favor, so be it. Who cares about logic, integrity or anything he might have argued in the past?
Right now, neocons are pushing hard for a war with Iran. As Donald Trump reportedly seeks a deal and so many MAGA voices oppose a U.S. intervention with Iran, war hawks are turning up the volume to try to have their way, as they have been accustomed to.
But the neocons are fading. So much so that for the first time, in anyone’s recollection, Mark Levin is pleading that Congress must vote on any peace deal with Iran.
It’s hilarious.
Libertarian Institute Senior Fellow Tom Woods shared a recent post in which Levin demanded more respect for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau, who Trump ignored on his recent Middle East trip.:
Levin is getting very impatient with Trump. This is interesting to watch
He’s trying very hard not to come right out and condemn Trump, and it’s making him crazy https://t.co/OkFTKFXNLH
— Tom Woods (@ThomasEWoods) May 27, 2025
It is making him crazy. So crazy that he’s now demanding congressional approval on matters of war and peace, something he has otherwise rejected his entire career.
