But even if he had executed the move better, it’s hard to imagine that the bipartisan reaction would have been much different. We are told we are entering these wars to keep people living overseas from killing Americans. We then are told we must stay in these wars until further notice to keep people living overseas from killing each other. When Trump has escalated wars, he has largely heard applause. When he has even half-heartedly tried to wind one down, the nation’s capital unites against him, and his own party protests the loudest.

For all the arguable abuses of power that have taken place under Trump, the unambiguous usurpation of Congress’ power to declare war is seldom if ever seriously discussed as grounds for impeachment. It says a great deal about the state of affairs in Washington, D.C., that Trump may have marginally increased his odds of being removed from office by attempting to end a war Congress never authorized in the first place.

We’ve now redefined “wag the dog” to mean possibly ending such a war.

This is why our foreign policy never changes, despite what the voters may want. There are no legal and few political downsides to letting small wars continue forever on auto pilot. It’s far riskier to pull the plug on them. Better for members to let the president assume all the risk, even if they think he is incompetent and the Constitution clearly says otherwise.