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Does USA as a nation have any power at all over any action the sitting president wishes, including actions that violate International Law, treaties, or the Constitution?

Specifically

  1. Does the sitting president require approval of any instance or body in the US Government before signing executive orders that are acts of war?
  2. Acting without this approval, what are the punitive measures by law that this body can take to prevent such actions?

What have you tried

a) Congress. Obviously the party in power will have 50% (or near) of complying members that will have great chances of obstructing any intervention with the sitting president's wishes.

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    The AG can not pass laws. Only the legislature can pass laws. Also when you say 'USA as a nation' do you mean its people or its government (ie congress & senate)?
    – David says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 23:08
  • I certainly don't limit the nation to the members of Congress and the Senate. How about every living human inside its borders?
    – Henrik Erlandsson
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 23:19
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    If you limiting the question to acts of war, it's probably a duplicate. If you don't limit it at all it is probably too broad. Certainly you don't want a list of options for each of the 300 million of us for any conceivable action.
    – user9389
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 23:41
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    "Congress. Obviously the party in power will have 50% ..." — Keep in mind that midterm elections and the magic of gerrymandering mean that the party in power in the White House need not be the same party that is in power in Congress (not to mention that there could be a different party in power in the House than in the Senate).
    – jwodder
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 1:44
  • The party in power does not necessarily support the president. It's possible to have a Democratic majority in both houses of congress and a Republican president, or vice versa.
    – phoog
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 6:36

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Does USA as a nation have any power at all over any action the sitting president wishes?

Sure. That's what elections are for. If you are displeased with the president (and are an American citizen eligible to vote) then you can vote for someone else.

On top of that, the House and Senate can work together to impeach a president.

Finally, the courts can rule that certain actions the president took broke the law. For example, Trump's earlier immigration execution actions were struck down by court action. Similarly some parts of Obamacare were struck down by the Supreme Court.

Does the sitting president require approval of any instance or body in the US Government before signing executive orders that are acts of war?

The president does not have the power to declare war. The constitution grants Congress the power to declare war. I presume you are asking because of the recent Syria action. The legality of that is currently being debated and I'm not going to spend time on it here. All I'll say is that the president doesn't have the power to declare a new war, only Congress does.

In violation of approval, what are the punitive measures by law that this body can take?

The president is still a citizen of America. All existing laws still apply to him. If he shoots someone he'll still be charged with murder. There are various abuse of office statues throughout the US Code, but they have never been applied to a president. Realistically what would happen is impeachment (see: Nixon).

The Attorney General can pass law that prevents the actions of the sitting president, but obviously the president will appoint the AG that will comply with his wishes.

The Attorney General can not pass any laws whatsoever. Your point has no bearing on the rest of your question.

Congress. Obviously the party in power will have 50% (or near) of complying members that will have great chances of obstructing any intervention with the sitting president's wishes.

Again, Congress can impeach the president. As for party loyalty, keep in mind that only works when the wind is blowing in the right direction. This is what happened to Nixon. His illicit actions became so damaging to his own party that they eventually decided that it wasn't worth defending him anymore. That is when it was really over for Nixon.

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    Regarding party loyalty in Congress: A more recent example would be the failure of the AHCA.
    – Philipp ♦
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 1:13
  • "All existing laws still apply to him": this is not true; the president has immunity for official acts.
    – phoog
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 6:38
  • @DavidGrinberg AG stricken, mostly as you say it (law) has no bearing after the fact and so is moot, see my comment and added link. Of 4 impeachments, 0 have been executed and 1 resulted in resignation. This is about actions, not bills. Assuming actions of a sitting president such as committing acts of war without declaring war, does the link confirm that no instance or body in the US Government can limit such actions? If so, the question moves on to whether there is a limit as to which actions can be formulated as Executive Orders.
    – Henrik Erlandsson
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 17:19

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