Video: Kaine Delivers Speech On Senate Floor Condemning Trump’s Three Illegal Wars

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, spoke on the Senate floor to express his strong opposition to President Donald Trump's three illegal wars in Iran, Venezuela, and the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. In the speech, he called for congressional action to end these unauthorized military operations, which have needlessly cost the lives of U.S. servicemembers, killed innocent civilians, strained the federal budget, imposed devastating costs on American families and businesses, and damaged the United States' alliances.

"We are not a nation that prefers war, but we are being led by an Administration that is foolishly choosing war to solve problems that could best be solved by other means. Or-more troublingly-it is choosing to wage war to distract public attention from larger problems of its own making," said Kaine. "Our constituents know that Congress is the only institution with the constitutional power to stop unnecessary war. And they are begging us to do so."

"President Trump has launched three wars that are currently underway. He has not sought the approval of Congress for any of them. The wars are all, therefore, illegal," Kaine continued. "But in addition to the illegality that naturally flows from a President starting war without congressional authorization, each war is also burdened by numerous other legal, moral and strategic weaknesses."

On Operation Southern Spear, Kaine said, "It's obvious why the Administration wants all this cloaked with secrecy. The President and Pentagon don't want the American public to see what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. They are trying to hide, from the American people, the flimsiness of their legal case and the exorbitant cost and total ineffectiveness of these operations."

On Operation Absolute Resolve, Kaine continued, "I have long supported U.S. policies to sanction and isolate [Maduro's] dictatorial regime. But using the U.S. military to invade sovereign territory, without congressional approval and without any explanation or strategy for what might come next, is another matter entirely. The world follows our example and if invading another nation's sovereign territory to kidnap its president and topple its government is fine with the U.S., we lose our own standing to criticize other nations who might want to do the same."

On Operation Epic Fury, Kaine said, "The President ignored his own promise to avoid more war in the Middle East. He fulfilled a sad prophecy many of us made during his first term when he tore up a diplomatic deal that was controlling Iran's nuclear program. Those who make diplomacy impossible make war inevitable. Now, five months later, the folly of his illegal war has been made plain to all."

"These three foolish and illegal wars are largely rejected by the American public. Our voters want us to make their lives better, not waste their money in pointless military engagements far from home," Kaine continued. "The President has already punished us enough with his chaotic tariff taxes. Doubling down on illegal wars just makes things so much harder for everyday people."

"As the President seeks even more funds to carry out his illegal wars, and fights against any guardrails against his warmongering, Congress must stand up against him," said Kaine.

"President Trump and his self-titled Secretary of War now want to switch us back to bragging about war. Is this who we've become?" Kaine asked. "A nation that prefers war to diplomacy? A nation that sends its troops into harm's way, for needless wars of choice rather than to defend our homeland and our way of life?"

"I don't believe that's who we are after 250 years," Kaine continued. "And so I'll keep challenging the President's illegal and foolish wars at every opportunity and with every tool granted a United States Senator."

"Mindful of Mother Theresa's wisdom: 'We are not called to be successful, we are called to be faithful,'" Kaine concluded. "If we focus on being faithful-to our history, our values, our people-we are likely to be successful. And in doing so, we can reclaim the role for Congress that our Founders envisioned as they embarked upon this 250-year experiment in American democracy."

Kaine has consistently been a leading voice to reassert Congress' authority over war powers under Presidents of both parties. He insisted on congressional approval ahead of President Barack Obama's strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Under the Biden Administration, he led a bipartisan bill to repeal the Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) for the 1991 Gulf War and the 2002 Iraq War. The bill became law last year as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Kaine introduced War Powers Resolutions both before and after the Trump-Vance Administration began its present military operations in Iran, Venezuela, and the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Both chambers of Congress voted to end the war in Iran last month.

A transcript of Kaine's remarks as prepared is below:

Mr. President,

I rise to speak to what Americans all over this country are deeply feeling at this moment. We are not a nation that prefers war, but we are being led by an Administration that is foolishly choosing war to solve problems that could best be solved by other means. Or-more troublingly-it is choosing to wage war to distract public attention from larger problems of its own making.

This pattern of foolishly choosing war-whatever the legality and whatever the price-is sacrificing the lives of American troops, killing innocent civilians, stressing our nation's budget, imposing devastating costs on American families and businesses, dividing us from our allies and shredding our reputation as a stabilizing force in the world.

The chaos and damage from these wars is mounting even as the President contemplates new military misadventures in Cuba, Mali, and who knows where else. Our constituents know that Congress is the only institution with the constitutional power to stop unnecessary war. And they are begging us to do so.

President Trump has launched three wars that are currently underway. He has not sought the approval of Congress for any of them. The wars are all, therefore, illegal. But in addition to the illegality that naturally flows from a President starting war without congressional authorization, each war is also burdened by numerous other legal, moral and strategic weaknesses.

The first war is Operation Southern Spear, a campaign that began nearly a year ago, to use the U.S. military to sink boats in international waters near South America. To date, more than 65 separate strikes have killed more than 220 people on boats chosen as targets by our military. The operation has been repeatedly justified by the Pentagon as attacks on narcotraffickers. But the evidence suggests that many innocent civilians-unarmed non-combatants who are not transporting narcotics-are being murdered in these strikes, even while reporting confirms that this bloodshed is not accomplishing its stated purpose of decreasing the amount of drugs coming to the United States.

The Administration has worked exceptionally hard to maintain all aspects of Operation Southern Spear as classified. Because it is all kept classified, I am severely limited in what I can say about it.

The President created a secret list of what he calls "Designated Terrorist Organizations" last July as subjects for military attack. There is no law giving the President the power to create such an attack list. I have reviewed the list, but it's never been made public. As a result, those marked by the President for execution have never been notified that the U.S. has placed a target on them.

The Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice produced a legal memo last September to justify boat strikes against narcotraffickers in certain very specific circumstances. The memo also carefully described prohibited activity that could not be legally justified. I have read the legal memo, but it has remained classified so I cannot describe its contents.

In October, the Pentagon issued an implementation order to carry out the President's directive pursuant to the OLC opinion. That EXORD contains the targeting criteria that are to be used in choosing which boats to attack. I have reviewed the EXORD, but it has remained classified so I cannot describe its contents.

Each of the attacks is accompanied by a file describing the strike. I have reviewed the files of nearly 50 of the strikes and will soon complete review of the most recent strikes. Those files remain classified so I cannot describe their contents.

Why is the Administration maintaining classification of all this Southern Spear information? The justification, the legal rationale, the targeting criteria, the strike files describing each attack?

It's obvious why the Administration wants all this cloaked with secrecy.

The President and Pentagon don't want the American public to see what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. They are trying to hide, from the American people, the flimsiness of their legal case and the exorbitant cost and total ineffectiveness of these operations.

For example, the Pentagon is glad to show edited videos of an exploding boat to pat itself on the back and brag about its lethality toward narcotraffickers. They proudly did so following the first fatal strike of a boat on September 2.

Months after this first PR video was released by the Pentagon, it was revealed that the full video also showed struggling survivors clinging to wreckage and seeking rescue. In violation of U.S. and international law, the U.S. returned to the site and killed the survivors. I've seen that video-many of my colleagues have-and it's horrifying. The Administration refuses to release it.

Remember that, at the time of the strike, the existence of Southern Spear had not even been announced. Those struggling for their lives had not been informed that they might be targeted. The U.S. killed them anyway and then selectively edited the video so that the American public would only see an initial boat explosion but not the cowardly and cold-blooded murder of desperate shipwrecked people that took place later.

And this is not the most shocking thing about Southern Spear.

The most shocking thing is that the Administration has been lying to the American public about whether the campaign is even against narcotrafficking!

While I am not allowed to discuss the contents of the OLC Legal Opinion or the EXORD implementing the President's directive, I can say this. In reviewing the targeting criteria in the EXORD, I was immediately struck by what was missing…

The targeting criteria used by the U.S. military to strike boats contain no requirement that there be ANY evidence that there are narcotics on board! Nor is there ANY requirement that the sailors on any of these boats be armed.

Those criteria could have been included, but the Pentagon intentionally chose not to require such evidence.

Why not restrict U.S. military attacks to boats that we know to be carrying narcotics? How could it be legally justifiable for the U.S. military to strike boats and kill those aboard with no evidence that the boats contained narcotics or arms? How could this be deemed self-defense-which is the requirement for the President to use lethal force without a congressional authorization?

Many of those killed in Operation Southern Spear-unarmed individuals not transporting narcotics-are not combat casualties. They are murder victims. Public reporting conclusively demonstrates that some of those murdered have been humble fishermen, whose families saw them leave for an honest day's work one day, and then never come home.

Trump's second illegal war is Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military invasion of Venezuela to topple the regime of dictator Nicholas Maduro. I have long supported U.S. policies to sanction and isolate this dictatorial regime. But using the U.S. military to invade sovereign territory, without congressional approval and without any explanation or strategy for what might come next, is another matter entirely. The world follows our example and if invading another nation's sovereign territory to kidnap its president and topple its government is fine with the U.S., we lose our own standing to criticize other nations who might want to do the same.

The actual military invasion was at least brief, with a small number of U.S. troop injuries. And our military's performance was exemplary, but its aftermath has been highly problematic. The United States is now using the military to control the Venezuelan economy and government and is thus contributing to the oppression and subjugation of the Venezuelan people. Even though Venezuelans chose to reject Maduro in a 2024 Presidential election in favor of the political opposition headed by Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado and the duly-elected President Edmundo Gonzalez, the U.S. has thrown its support behind the Maduro regime by propping up his Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as the country's leader. Public reporting suggests that the Administration has deliberately made it difficult for Machado and Gonzalez to return home from political exile, even in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that has killed thousands and displaced multiples more. Why is this Administration choosing to support the Maduro-Rodriguez dictatorship and impede authentic Venezuelan leaders who offer a new chapter for their people?

The Venezuelan people deserve a government by, of, and for Venezuelans. Maintaining Maduro's cronies in place and allowing them to continue the oppression of the Venezuelan people, primarily to benefit well-connected energy companies, is not a legitimate use of American military power. Rodriguez and the remnants of the Maduro regime are moving aggressively to consolidate their hold on power. Like despots around the world, they have learned how to humor the Administration in the short run and buy its affection, and then wait until it gets distracted and its attention turns elsewhere.

Finally, America has spilled much blood and treasure during President Trump's foolish war against Iran. On February 27, we were not at war, the Strait of Hormuz was open and the price of gas and other key commodities were as normal as things could be in 2026. But President Trump, without a clear plan, a coherent rationale, the participation of allies, the approval of Congress or the support of the American public, launched Operation Epic Fury.

The President ignored his own promise to avoid more war in the Middle East. He fulfilled a sad prophecy many of us made during his first term when he tore up a diplomatic deal that was controlling Iran's nuclear program. Those who make diplomacy impossible make war inevitable.

Now, five months later, the folly of his illegal war has been made plain to all.

18 U.S. troops have been killed. The Pentagon is disrespectfully reclassifying some of these deaths as not related to this war, so the President can downplay its impact to servicemembers.

Hundreds of our troops have been injured, although the Pentagon is trying to downplay those numbers as well.

Thousands of innocent Iranian civilians have died-including children killed when the U.S. bombed a school in the opening days of the war.

The costs of the war to the American taxpayer have ballooned into the tens of billions and the Pentagon is now seeking an astronomical increase in last year's record defense budget because of these self-imposed costs.

American families are paying more for gasoline, American farmers are paying more for fertilizer and diesel, and American businesses are paying more for goods and materials that normally transit through the Strait of Hormuz. And in recent days a new challenge has emerged, one that the Administration could have easily anticipated-the Houthis, strategically positioned in Yemen, have started to cut off transit through the Bab el Mandeb Strait. This strait, like Hormuz, is one of the world's major commercial routes.

The endless rounds of start/stop, and the frequent Presidential proclamations of victory or ceasefire interrupted by new rounds of back and forth attacks in the region, have produced a profound uncertainty that is endangering economic prospects in all corners of the earth.

These three foolish and illegal wars are largely rejected by the American public. Our voters want us to make their lives better, not waste their money in pointless military engagements far from home.

Especially with regard to Trump's war with Iran, haven't we learned enough from 20+ years of war in the Middle East? The Global War on Terror lost 14,000+ American lives, 65,000+ American casualties, and costs into the trillions of taxpayer dollars that should have been spent on education, infrastructure, and health care investments at home.

Americans want a President and government who will spend our dollars here to make energy, health care, childcare and other necessities like groceries more affordable. The President has already punished us enough with his chaotic tariff taxes. Doubling down on illegal wars just makes things so much harder for everyday people.

So what can we do? Knowing that our President is likely to plow forward on a failed and destructive policy, Congress must stand up.

The Iran war is triply illegal.

First, it's unconstitutional because the President launched it without congressional approval.

Second, the war violates the War Powers Act of 1973. This act allows the President to initiate military action in very specific instances-if there is a declaration of war by Congress, an authorization for the use of military force, also by Congress, or, in the case of a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States. None of those conditions were met prior to the President launching this war.

Even if we were to assume one of those conditions had been met, the law requires that any military activity reach a hard stop at 60 days, unless Congress explicitly votes to approve it. We are well past the 60-day deadline, with no congressional authorization, and yet the President continues to send our troops to the region and threaten more attacks, as the American public watches flag-draped caskets come home.

And now both Houses of Congress-under Republican majorities-have passed legislation requiring the President to remove troops from hostilities against Iran unless Congress passes a war authorization. The President has not removed troops from hostilities, he's sending more into harm's way. The President has not sought a vote on a war authorization because he knows he would lose such a vote in dramatic fashion.

Instead, he's taken his warmongering all on his own shoulders. President Trump can ignore the law and he can break the law. But he cannot change the law.

If the President won't abide by the Constitution, the War Powers Act, or the expressed will of two Republican-majority houses of Congress, we have one more power. Only Congress can appropriate funds for government operations.

As the President seeks even more funds to carry out his illegal wars, and fights against any guardrails against his warmongering, Congress must stand up against him.

We must stand up against his illegal wars.

We must stand up for our troops.

We must stand up for their families.

We must stand up for citizens who want a government focused on making their lives better.

We must stand up for America the peacemaker not America the war-wager.

President Trump and his Pentagon are pushing us to rename the Department of Defense to be the Department of War.

Of course they are!

They want performative war in the worst possible way. They care more about the optics and trolling Twitter with flashy videos than they do about doing the hard, tough work of defending the American people and keeping us safe.

Most nations had a Department of War throughout history and we did too. But President Truman-who had known the horrors of war as an officer in WWI and then as Commander in Chief at the end of WWII-decided that the American mission should be defense, not war.

And so he changed our military mission from War to Defense. And the nations of the world followed-Germany, France, Britain, Japan, and so many others. Brazil was the last major nation to switch to Defense, three decades ago.

But President Trump and his self-titled Secretary of War now want to switch us back to bragging about war.

Is this who we've become?

A nation that prefers war to diplomacy? A nation that sends its troops into harm's way for needless wars of choice rather than to defend our homeland and our way of life?

I don't believe that's who we are after 250 years.

And so I'll keep challenging the President's illegal and foolish wars at every opportunity and with every tool granted a United States Senator.

Mindful of Mother Theresa's wisdom:

"We are not called to be successful, we are called to be faithful."

If we focus on being faithful-to our history, our values, our people-we are likely to be successful.

And in doing so, we can reclaim the role for Congress that our Founders envisioned as they embarked upon this 250-year experiment in American democracy.

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