The House narrowly defeated a war powers resolution Thursday that aimed to block further military action by President Trump in Venezuela without approval from Congress.
The 215-215 vote fell mostly along party lines, and didn’t earn any more GOP support than a similar measure Democrats tried to pass in December, before the early January military operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, Texas Republican, who has been largely skipping House votes to campaign for his Senate bid, showed up at the last minute to vote “no,” preventing the measure from passing.
The House resolution, introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, called for the president to “remove United States Armed Forces from Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force.”
“I don’t trust this administration. I don’t trust this president to tell me the correct time, never mind keep his word on war powers,” Mr. McGovern said.
But Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas argued that Congress should be “standing behind our president right now as he is engaging around the world to make sure our national security interest is being represented.”
“At some point, you always have to check, you always have to look to make sure you think powers are being followed, but what we saw with Maduro, I think it’s appropriate, what we see going on right now I think fits in the parameters, the powers the president has,” he said.
Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, accused Democrats of bringing up this vote out of “spite.”
“It’s about the fact that you don’t want President Trump to arrest Maduro, and you will condemn him no matter what he does, even though he brought Maduro to justice with possibly the most successful law enforcement operation in history,” Mr. Mast said on the floor.
Only GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska supported the measure.
Earlier this week, Mr. Bacon pointed to a Truth Social post by the president that featured Mr. Trump, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Vance sticking an American flag on Greenland. A sign in the corner says, “Greenland – U.S. territory est. 2026.”
“When you ask me why I voted the way I did on the War Powers Resolution later this week…here’s one reason,” he wrote.
Mr. McGovern said his “biggest disappointment has not been Donald Trump, because I expected this. My biggest disappointment has been the number of House Republicans who know better, who just go along to get along.”
“They are complicit in undermining this institution,” he said.
The vote comes a week after Senate Republicans flipped enough votes in the upper chamber to kill a similar Venezuela war powers resolution offered by Democrats in that chamber.
The president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made personal appeals to the five GOP senators who backed an initial procedural vote to advance the resolution.
Two of the five senators, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, changed their stance, leading to a 50-50 tie that had to be broken by Vice President J.D. Vance.
Mr. Trump met last week with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. She presented him her prize, and he said that “maybe we can get her involved” in the role of figuring out Venezuela’s future as Mr. Maduro sits in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial on narco terrorism charges.
The country’s acting president is Delcy Rodriguez, who served as vice president under Mr. Maduro.
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.
