Technically ... yes. That, however, presumes a deal with this regime would last long enough for Congress to play a role at all.
To understand why Donald Trump needs Congress to make a deal work, one has to recall what happened in the wake of Barack Obama's deal. Congress passed a law at that time requiring approval of any future deals with Iran, or perhaps a bit more accurately, providing itself a veto process. Both before and after the JCPOA, Congress imposed sanctions on Iran in statutes that further increased its power in Iran deals.
Time Magazine points out the problem for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, especially with a Congress where Republicans have serious doubts about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Iran wants sanctions relief up front, and that's just the start of the complications on Capitol Hill:
As the first round of U.S.-Iran talks conclude in Switzerland, the Trump Administration’s effort to negotiate a peace agreement is facing possible roadblocks at home. A skeptical Congress has repeatedly expressed concerns about the framework since its announcement. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a Trump ally, on Friday joined a growing chorus of Republicans who have vocally criticized the President’s potential deal with Iran, saying on his podcast that the memorandum of understanding “doesn’t make any sense.” ...
The dissent from congressional Republicans can’t simply be brushed off by the White House, since Congress established its authority in approving any future Iran nuclear deal in a 2015 law. Under that measure, the president must submit the text of any nuclear-related agreement to Congress within five days of it being finalized, and Congress has 30 days to vote on a resolution of disapproval, which would require a simple majority in both chambers to pass. If Congress passes such a resolution—and overcomes a potential veto from the President, a move that would require a more significant two-thirds majority—the Trump Administration would be prohibited from lifting sanctions on Iran or providing the country any economic relief, essentially nullifying the memo.
In essence, and perhaps in intent, this parallels the War Powers Resolution (or Act, if preferred). Congress can pass resolutions to end military action after 60 days, which presidents can veto. Congress can then override the veto if two-thirds of each chamber votes to shut down military action, at which point forces must be withdrawn. First, however, the mess would likely end up in at the Supreme Court for a showdown over the War Powers Resolution's constitutionality.
The same process applies here, but not the same constitutional risk. Trump could argue that Congress is interfering with his executive authority in foreign affairs, but that's not the same kind of hard constitutional line as military command. The Constitution gives Congress a key role in foreign affairs by requiring Senate ratification of any foreign treaties. If challenged in this instance, the Supreme Court may take a very critical view of "executive agreements" like MOUs and JCPOAs as a dodge around that requirement for treaties. That may be a debate Trump would prefer to avoid. Plus, as noted, Congress passed sanctions against Iran into statutes that only Congress can repeal. Some of those include authority for presidents to issue temporary waivers, but even those are limited. Either way, Trump will have to get Congress to go along at some point.
The ironic twist is that Congress is less likely to override a veto on a War Powers Resolution bill than on this law. Republican hawks want Iran defeated and the IRGC destroyed, not another meaningless set of promises from a radical terror regime that has no intention of fulfilling them. Democrats finally snuck a WPR disapproval through the House this month, which then died immediately in the Senate. The prospects for a vote on the MOU are much less hopeful for the White House, given the TDS among Democrats and the unhappiness of GOP hawks over the terms of the MOU. A veto override is a very good possibility under these circumstances, especially with the money and assets that will transfer directly back to the regime.
All of this is theoretical, however. A deal would have to survive long enough for Congress to review it, and right now, we don't even have a deal yet. The MOU is a framework for discussions with relatively symmetrical concessions as confidence-building points for negotiations to proceed. Iran is already balking at those concessions, insisting for instance that they will continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, even as traffic comes closer to normal:
Iran's insistence on forcing Israel out of Lebanon is another non-starter, one that Vance and Trump are realizing they can't solve. Israel is not going to let Hezbollah rebuild in the sub-Litani region, nor Hamas in Gaza for that matter, and any deal with Iran will have to account for that. It's an irreconcilable issue outside of allowing war to run its course now, as it has been since October 7, and that will likely scuttle any deal with the IRGC in Tehran before signatures can even be affixed to it. We will likely have to remain in the Strait for a long time while the regime exhausts itself and Lebanon finally acts to eject Hezbollah from its sovereign territory.
Trump almost certainly understands all of this. He's hoping to get the IRGC to act in its rational interest of survival, perhaps thinking that this third tier of leadership is much less attached to the Twelfther cult of the mullahs and more interested in a normal military junta. That's certainly possible, but thus far, their insistence on linkage to Hezbollah and refusal to negotiate in good faith on the Hormuz crisis sends a very different signal. That may be useful for Trump with our allies in the Gulf if hostilities start again. The prospects for a workable agreement are somewhere between slim and none, though, and slim has left the building.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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