Donald Trump has more power to launch military action than any president since Vietnam War, says report

Donald Trump has more power to go to war than any American president in the last 40 years, a new report has found.

A study published by the University of Waterloo in Canada found the military actions of former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama have ultimately handed President Trump greater power to carry out military intervention.

In examining US military interventions between 2001 and 2016, the paper found significant parallels in the way Bush and Obama tackled and traversed consultation and authorisation procedures with Congress and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Both of President Trump’s predecessors went to war unilaterally rather than getting permission from Congress.

Although it’s worth noting this is by no means a precedent started by Bush and Obama. Republican and Democrat presidents have a long history of carrying out military operations without approval of congress – especially since the end of the Second World War.

"Right now, Donald Trump has an enormous amount of power to launch military action, perhaps more than any president since the Vietnam War," the report’s author, Aaron Ettinger, said.

"Trump's predecessors left a legacy of military adventurism that suits his aggressive style."

According to the study, since 9/11 both Bush and Obama made efforts to get around domestic and international law in the attempt to balance American independence with respect for international order.

The majority of legal scholars agree America’s founding fathers wanted Congress to make the decision on whether to go to war unless the country is under an attack. Nevertheless, this has dramatically changed in the modern era, with executive branch lawyers arguing the president, as commander-in-chief, may employ military force unilaterally if they think the strike would be in the national interest.

The report said the world would have to wait to see how recent patterns of American interventionism would manifest themselves in the Trump era and how President Trump would react to mounting global tension.

"Trump's first six months as president have seen tensions rise on the Korean peninsula, ongoing depravity in Syria and Iraq, the devolution of relations with Russia, strains with China, and the alienation of NATO allies," Ettinger, an assistant professor of political science, said.

"We will soon see how a president with no foreign affairs experience, an aggressive personality and few restraints will respond to the current global climate."

President Trump raised alarm bells about the prospect of a nuclear conflict on Tuesday after he launched his sternest warning to North Korea yet.

He said: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”.

Since then Pyongyang has said it is "carefully examining" a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.

In April, Mr Trump carried out a missile attack on Syrian forces for using chemical weapons against civilians without authorisation from Congress or the UNSC.