Peak Trump: War, Antitrust, and Third Terms

Law Talk With Epstein, Yoo & Cooke

The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin

Politics, News, History, Government

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is the United States already at war with Venezuela—and if so, who authorized it? The Law Talk crew reconvenes for a wide-ranging debate over presidential war powers, congressional passivity, and how far modern practice has drifted from constitutional text. The conversation then pivots to Netflix's attempt to buy Warner Bros antitrust and whether or not in these big mergers consumer welfare still matters at all. The episode closes with a sharp examination of the most feverish legal question of the moment: could a president really serve a third term—or is that pure constitutional fantasy?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Charlie, John, you're still on the camera.
0:02.3	Oh, now we see him in this rhetorical best.
0:09.3	Welcome to Law Talk.
0:11.7	I'm Charles C.W. Cook, and I'm here, of course, with Richard Epstein and John U.
0:18.9	This is a production of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
0:24.6	All right, so last night, it's Thursday, December 18th.
0:30.6	President Donald Trump gave a prime time address, 9 p.m. E.T. from the White House and many people thought, and in fact,
0:40.3	I think the White House maybe wanted many people to think that Trump was about to announce the
0:46.4	beginning of hostilities, formal hostilities, perhaps even land-based hostilities with Venezuela.
0:57.2	Now, that didn't happen, but the fact that it was expected, the fact that it seemed plausible
1:04.8	that the President of the United States would call an address and then announce that the
1:10.4	United States was at war with Venezuela.
1:12.9	It's interesting given that the Congress has not declared war on Venezuela,
1:19.6	and there is no AUMF that deals with Venezuela, at least as far as I can see.
1:27.8	And this raises an age-old question, which is, is that allowed?
1:32.0	Is the president allowed to do what he has been doing
1:35.6	and what he is hinting that he might do in the future?
1:39.7	So I think we have disagreement here.
1:41.4	I'll start with you, John U.
1:44.8	If Donald Trump decides to, say, invade Venezuela, remove its leadership, is he within constitutional bounds?
1:55.3	Charlie, first, I think we are at war with Venezuela.
1:59.0	Despite President Trump not admitting it in public, we just, the United States
	...

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