Trump exceeded his constitutional power

I keep seeing people ask whether Congress approved President Trump’s reported capture of Venezuela’s president. The short answer appears to be no, at least not that anyone has publicly identified.

There has been no evidence that Congress authorized this action in advance, nor has the president claimed he consulted them.

That distinction matters.

Under the Constitution, Congress, not the president, holds the authority to authorize war or major military action. While presidents may act swiftly in true emergencies, the capture of another nation’s head of state on foreign soil is not a routine defensive act.

Absent congressional approval, this raises serious concerns about executive overreach and the erosion of checks and balances. If one president can unilaterally order an operation of this magnitude, it lowers the bar for future presidents — regardless of party — to do the same.

This is not about defending or condemning Nicolás Maduro. It is about legality, process and the constitutional guardrails designed to restrain power. Those guardrails matter most when the person wielding authority is someone you support, because eventually that power will be held by someone you don’t.

You don’t have to be partisan to be concerned about that.

Elizabeth Peterson

Fultonville

Trump just did what needed to be done

I’m amazed and amused that the very politicians who have publicly called for the extraction of the drug-lord-in-chief, Maduro, to be removed from his position by any means possible are now having a fit because that’s exactly what the Trump administration has done.

Contrast this operation to that of the failed Afghanistan pull-out of Biden, where........

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