The Hostilities-Terminated Letter — The President Tells Congress the May 1 War-Powers Deadline No Longer Applies Because the Iran Hostilities Are “Terminated” Despite the Saturday CENTCOM Strike, the Indiana Five Lose Their Primaries Over Redistricting Refusals, Speaker Johnson Schedules a Saturday Conference Call at Six Eastern and the H.Res.939 Impeachment Article Sits on the Floor Calendar for Wednesday Morning
President Trump told Congress in a letter circulated to the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader at five minutes past three on Friday afternoon that the sixty-day War Powers Resolution clock that began on the February 28 Hormuz strike, and that ran out on May 1, no longer applies because the Iran hostilities are, in the letter’s phrase, “terminated.” The letter does not name Saturday morning’s CENTCOM strike on the Aria-2 and the Khordad-7. Five Indiana state legislators who voted against the Trump-driven redistricting plan in March lost their Republican primaries on Tuesday by double-digit margins, on certified results posted by the Indiana secretary of state at noon Eastern Saturday. Speaker Johnson, on his press secretary’s line at half past two on Saturday afternoon, has scheduled a Saturday-night conference call of the Republican conference at six Eastern. H.Res.939, the third Trump impeachment article of the 119th Congress, sits on the House floor calendar for Wednesday morning.
The Letter
The letter, on the version transmitted to congressional leadership at five minutes past three Friday afternoon, runs three paragraphs and is signed by the President. The first paragraph names the February 28 strike on the Iranian Republican Guard naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas. The second paragraph names the Trump-brokered ceasefire that took effect on April 14 and the Doha framework Secretary Rubio tabled on Thursday. The third paragraph, the operative one, asserts that “the hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated” and that the sixty-day deadline imposed by Section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution “therefore does not apply.” The letter does not name Saturday’s CENTCOM strike on the two tankers off Qeshm. The Office of Legal Counsel memorandum supporting the President’s position, on the version Politics Lookout has obtained, runs to fourteen pages and was signed by the Acting Assistant Attorney General at twenty minutes past two Friday afternoon.
The Indiana Five
The Indiana five, on the certified results posted by the Indiana secretary of state at noon Eastern Saturday, are Senate Pro Tem Jeff Raatz, House Majority Floor Leader Matt Lehman and three House committee chairs whose names are on the certified slate. The five were the visible Republican opponents of the March redistricting plan that redrew Indiana’s nine House seats to deliver, on Cook Political Report’s assessment, a likely shift of one to two seats from likely-Democratic to likely-Republican in November. The President endorsed primary challengers against all five in late March on Truth Social, naming each by name. The challengers carried by margins ranging from twelve to twenty-three points. The chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, on his line at one Eastern Saturday, called the result “a clear directive from the base.” The chair of the state Senate Democratic caucus called it “the price of crossing him.”
The Saturday Conference Call
The Speaker’s Saturday conference call, on the press secretary’s line at half past two on Saturday afternoon, is scheduled for six Eastern and is open to all 219 House Republicans. The agenda, on the line distributed by the whip team at three, has three items: the President’s letter to Congress and the Office of Legal Counsel memorandum supporting it; the floor schedule for Wednesday, including the disposition of H.Res.939; and the Iran supplemental that the White House has indicated will be transmitted to the Hill on Tuesday. The whip team has, on the line one of its members gave Politics Lookout at half past three, asked all members to be on the line at six. The Senate Republican conference will hold a parallel call at seven Eastern, on Senator Thune’s line at four o’clock Saturday afternoon. The Senate call will, on the same line, focus on the Iran supplemental.
H.Res.939 on the Floor Calendar
H.Res.939, the third Trump impeachment article of the 119th Congress, was introduced on April 23 by the lead House Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee and co-signed by 142 Democrats. It charges the President with the unauthorised use of military force in violation of Article I and the War Powers Resolution. It sits on the House floor calendar for Wednesday morning, on the calendar issued by the Office of the Clerk on Friday at five Eastern. It will not pass: the Republican conference holds the floor and will, on the assessment of three Republican whips contacted on Saturday afternoon, vote it down on a near party-line vote. The political function of the floor vote, on the read of two Democratic whips, is to put on the record the names of every Republican who voted on Wednesday morning to ratify the President’s reading of his own war powers.
What Saturday Has Settled
What Saturday has settled is that the President will treat the May 1 deadline as not applying, that the Indiana primary verdict has confirmed his read of the price of crossing him, that the Speaker will work the conference at six on Saturday evening to hold the line through Wednesday, and that the impeachment article will be voted down by the Republican majority on a near party-line basis. What Saturday has not settled is whether the Senate Republican conference, on the call Senator Thune is running at seven, accepts the Office of Legal Counsel reading without a hearing, or whether the Iran supplemental can clear the Senate without an authorisation-for-the-use-of-military-force amendment. The honest reading of Saturday afternoon, on the letter, the Indiana five and the conference calls, is that the President has chosen to assert the question rather than negotiate it, and that Wednesday’s floor vote will mark, on the record, the conference’s answer.