HALIFAX—When will America wake up to the reality that its democracy and peace in the world are both at risk from the bully in the bully pulpit?

When will that country realize that three more years of Trumpian chaos could end in unfixable catastrophe?

These questions are not hyperbolic, but reflect history as it is unfolding under United States President Donald Trump. As you read these words, the president has dispatched thousands of troops to the Middle East where he is at war with Iran. There are wars of necessity, and wars of choice. Trump has created a third category: wars of whimsy.

Yes, Trump—not the U.S.—is at war with Tehran. The American people were never consulted about the attack. Congress, which has exclusive constitutional power to sanction going to war, never gave its blessing to this gross misadventure. Trump did not bother to seek congressional permission. Not a single hearing was held before this dreaded decision to bomb and bully was unilaterally taken by the president.

Nor did the United Nations authorize the war. In fact, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned it. Bottom line? Trump’s war is illegal under both U.S. and international law.  

Get Weekend Point of View Newsletter

Top Canadian political and policy opinion and analysis. Saturdays and Sundays. Weekends.

By entering your email address you consent to receive email from The Hill Times containing news, analysis, updates and offers. You may unsubscribe at any time. See our privacy policy

Canadian politicos react to Trump’s inauguration speech

Election promise tracker: key pledges parties are making this campaign

All eyes on Trump: meet the top 50 foreign policy influencers navigating Canada’s role in a rocky world

It is true that a U.S. president can, under certain rare circumstances, declare war on his own. The key exception empowering the White House to act unilaterally is if the country is facing an “imminent threat.”  

But Tom Kent, former director of Trump’s National Counterterrorism Centre, said in his letter of resignation over the war that Iran did not, in fact, pose an imminent threat to the U.S. before Trump unleashed the dogs of war. He has since asked the president to reverse his decision.

Nor is Kent the only public figure with grave reservations about Trump’s war on Iran. Germany’s President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, blasted the war as a “disastrous mistake” and a violation of international law.

Besides its legal status, there is another potentially grave problem with Trump’s military action against Iran. It comes back to the president’s threat to “obliterate” power stations in Iran if that country fails to unconditionally open the Strait of Hormuz. 

Several human rights experts say that attacking power stations would amount to crossing a legal red line. That’s because it is considered a war crime to attack civilian infrastructure. As reported by The New York Times, the International Criminal Court issued four arrest warrants to Russian military officers for attacking electric infrastructure during the Ukraine war.

Here’s what Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times about what is happening in Iran: “Trump is openly threatening a war crime. And people aren’t saying anything because they’re numb to it.”   

Kent is dead on. Trump’s own party has sat silently on its hands while their leader violates both the law and the Constitution. The consequences of their silent sycophancy have been perilous for both America and the rest he world.  

Iran reacted to Trump’s war by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz. Since 20 per cent of the world’s oil, not to mention huge quantities of fertilizer and diesel, is shipped through that strait, energy shortages are threatening a global recession.  

A case in point: in the Philippines, with a population of more than 100 million people, oil shortages have already led to draconian measures. The country has moved to a four-day work week, and imposed travel restrictions to conserve energy.  

In the U.S. itself, Americans are feeling the consequences of Trump’s illegal war. For starters, they are footing the bill for the military operations—more than $12-billion in the first week of the conflict. Trump is also asking Congress for $200-billion more to continue the war. Strange. The president says the war will last only a few more weeks. So why the astronomical demand for war funding? 

Besides the direct war costs, Americans are also paying higher prices at the pumps, in some cases $4 a gallon. If the war persists through April, a gallon of gas could hit $5. Food prices will also inevitably spike, tied as they are to the cost of energy.

Trump’s self-declared war on Iran is his most dramatic assault on democracy and the rule of law, but far from the only one. Trump’s so-called Save America Act is not about protecting the integrity of elections.  

Under this proposed legislation, Black U.S. citizens without birth records would lose their right to vote, as would other categories of Americans. And there’s one other thing. Voting by non-citizens in the U.S. is extremely rare. In Louisiana, for example, out of 2.9 million eligible voters, just over 300 were non-citizens, 0.01 per cent.    

So what is the president’s legislation really about?  Senator Elissa Slotkin says she has “zero confidence” that Trump is interested in free and fair elections. Rather, the Senator says, its his real purpose with the Save America Act is to undermine the electoral process.

Legislation aimed at suppressing the vote is bad enough for any democracy. But Trump hasn’t stopped there. The president has also promised that thousands of ICE agents, whose colleagues murdered Renee Good and Alex Petri in Minnesota early in 2026, will be present at polling stations during upcoming elections.  

In addition to these two killings, six people have died while in ICE custody. The question Americans must ask themselves is what possible business this gun-toting, unprofessional private army of the president has at polling stations? Is it to secure or to intimidate? 

Meanwhile, Trump’s belligerent approach to his real and imagined adversaries shows no signs of changing. In the wake of kidnapping Venezuela’s leader and his wife, after declaring an illegal war on Iran, the man who in his own life avoided all military service, is now openly musing that he will soon take over Cuba.  

With countries, as with individuals, reputation is really all there is. Americans, starting with elected members of the Republican Party, have to stand up to this unAmerican president before the damage he has already done, in part by their acquiescence, becomes permanent.

Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.

© The Hill Times