The Associated Press accuses him of circumventing Congress. Trump says: The war is over

US President Donald Trump said that his country will not withdraw from its confrontation with Iran soon, "so that the problem does not resurface" at a later date.

This came in press statements made on Friday,  May 1, 2026, during a public event in the state of Florida, in his first participation of this kind after an assassination attempt during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, last Saturday.

 "The Iranians are not coming to us with the kind of deal they should be making," Trump said, vowing to deal with this "appropriately."

During his recent statements, the US president said that there are about 400 ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz due to Iran's closure of the strait, and he also criticized his country's lack of support from NATO, during its war on Iran, indicating that they spent "trillions of dollars" on the alliance, yet Washington did not receive any support from it in the last war.

Trump: Negotiations with Iran are not going in the desired direction

Ahead of his departure for Florida, Trump told reporters that negotiations with Iran were "still ongoing, but not moving in the right direction," claiming that Iranian leaders "disagree with each other and are not satisfied with Tehran's latest offer."

Earlier on Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that Tehran had made a new offer to Pakistan to resume negotiations with the United States in order to reach an agreement to end the war.

Last week, Iran handed Pakistan an offer of its terms to end the war, with the aim of transferring it to the United States.

Iranian media have earlier reported that Tehran is ready to negotiate an end to the war and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, but has suggested that it discuss its nuclear activities after a permanent ceasefire is reached.

On the other hand, Trump considered that imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz was "very effective," predicting that oil and gas prices would fall after the war ends.

He criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for supplying Ukraine with "most" of the military equipment that the United States has, saying, "Biden, foolishly, gave Ukraine most of what we (our ammunition)," but reiterated that the United States is "not worried" about the shortage of military equipment.

Associated Press: Trump Circumvents Congress

US President Donald Trump has said that the deadline set out in the War Powers Act for the continuation of the war on Iran is "invalid", claiming that "hostilities are effectively over", despite the continued presence of US troops in the region and the hint of the possibility of resuming attacks.

The Associated Press considered  that the letter sent by Trump to Congress effectively represents a bypass of the legal deadline set for May 1, which required the US administration to obtain authorization from Congress to continue the war against Iran.

"The hostilities that began on Feb. 28, 2026, are over," Trump wrote in his letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate'  s interim president, but the letter itself included references to the possibility of resuming military operations, reinforcing doubts that declaring the "end" of the war was an attempt to bypass the legal entitlements associated with congressional approval.

Politico noted that Trump said Thursday that previous U.S. presidents had not complied with the 60-day deadline stipulated in the War Powers Act, adding , "As you know, many presidents have exceeded that deadline," considering that "every other president has been of the opinion that this is completely unconstitutional."

Pentagon officials said U.S. forces remain on standby to resume attacks on Iran if peace talks collapse.

The news website Axios reported that the possibility of the end of the US-Israel war on Iran does not seem imminent, and that there are fears that the United States will slide into a state of "frozen conflict" with no war and no agreement.

What is the War Powers Act?

 The War Powers Resolution is a 1973 U.S. federal legislation aimed at restricting the ability of the President of the United States to engage armed forces in foreign conflicts without explicit congressional approval, in an effort to rebalance the executive and legislative branches in decisions of war and peace.

The law was passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, after Congress saw that presidents had used their powers as commanders of the armed forces to expand military intervention without formal authorization, and the act came to restore Congress's constitutional role in declaring war, a role that had been effectively reversed during previous decades.

The law requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of the start of any military operation or deployment overseas, emphasizing that no combat operation can continue for more than 60 days without congressional authorization or a formal declaration of war, with the president an additional month to withdraw troops if Congress does not agree to continue the mission.

Since its passage, the law has faced objections from U.S. presidents who saw it as restricting their executive powers in the National Security Administration, and President Richard Nixon vetoed it before Congress overrode it and became effective, and subsequent presidents have circumvented the law by classifying military operations as "not acts of hostilities" or "limited strikes" that do not require a time limit.