In what can only charitably be called testimony, Secretary of War Defense Pete Hegseth responded to a question by Senator Tim Kaine as to the administration’s plans for today. Today is the 60th day after Trump’s notification to Congress that he started a war. According to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, this is that day when the Warfighter-in-Chief must act.

Except Hegseth’s response asserted otherwise.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued Thursday that the Trump administration can continue the Iran war despite a Vietnam-era law that requires Congress’s approval after 60 days of fighting, in an apparent attempt to stave off the rapidly approaching deadline.

His comments came in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee where Hegseth asserted that an ongoing ceasefire between Washington and Tehran “pauses” the countdown.

To be fair, Hegseth is no lawyer, and it’s unclear whether this assertion reflects the reasoned legal opinion of anyone competent to reach such a conclusion in the Trump administration, even though Trump, by Executive Order, has declared that the law is whatever he decides it is.

Reading the text of Section 5 of the War Powers Resolution, however, the word “pause” appears nowhere.

(b) Within sixty calendar days after a report is submitted or is required to be submitted pursuant to section 4(a)(1), whichever is earlier, the President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces with respect to which such report was submitted (or required to be submitted), unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by law such sixty-day period, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States. Such sixty-day period shall be extended for not more than an additional thirty days if the President determines and certifies to the Congress in writing that unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of United States Armed Forces requires the continued use of such armed forces in the course of bringing about a prompt removal of such forces.

On the one hand, “within sixty calendar days” is sufficiently straightforward that even Hegseth ought to be capable of reading it accurately, and have the attention span to do so. And that 60 days runs today.

But the notion that there is an implicit caveat to pause the duty when there is a ceasefire is a curious idea. After all, the resolution might not mention a pause, but it also fails to mention a ceasefire, which has implications for hostilities. After all, isn’t a ceasefire a good thing? Shouldn’t the law accommodate good things like a ceasefire rather than force the president’s hand?

Then again, even though we might be in something of a ceasefire, or what is being called a ceasefire because neither bombs are dropping nor soldiers are deployed on the ground, there remains a naval blockade which is in itself an act of war. The war is by no means over, and indeed, is very much an ongoing threat even if guns aren’t going off at the moment.

According to the White House, talks with Congress are happening and bringing up such ugliness as the duties imposed by the War Powers Resolution serve only to “score political points.”

In a statement, the White House said the administration was in “active conversations with the Hill” regarding the 60-day deadline and warned against lawmakers trying “to score political points by usurping the Commander-in-Chief’s authority.”

Indeed, in his opening remarks, Hegseth informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that the greatest threat to the United States wasn’t the Russians or the Chinese, or even the Iranians with their Schrödinger’s nuclear bombs. It was the Democrats and disloyal Republicans.

The hearing, occurring as peace talks between Washington and Tehran remain stalled, followed Hegseth’s combative appearance Wednesday in the House, where he sparred with Democrats whom he labeled “the biggest adversary we face at this point” because of their scrutiny of the Iran war. Hegseth repeated the attack in his opening remarks Thursday, saying that “defeatists from the cheap seats” — in both parties — were undermining the war after only two months.

There appears to be no intention for Trump to comply with the duties of the War Powers Resolution. While the claim of a pause offers the sort of plausible excuse that suffices to give the MAGA faithful something to hold dear, there is no pause in the law and, given that the law is largely a gift of legislative authority to the executive in the first place, no justification for reading such a caveat into the law.

Congress has the authority to approve of Trump’s war, or at least to approve of Trump’s continuation of whatever he wants to call the current state of affairs, enabling Hegseth to continue to strut about like a peacock. But Trump won’t ask, and the Republican majority in Congress won’t do squat about it. Both Trump and Hegseth know this, and so the undeclared and unauthorized war will continue, perhaps forever.