The Trump administration is reportedly trying to strongarm the International Criminal Court (ICC) into changing its founding document to carve out an exception for President Donald Trump and his top officials ensuring that they are never prosecuted by the court for potential war crimes.

The administration is threatening the ICC with yet more sanctions if they do not amend the Rome Statute, which established the court in 2002, to ensure Trump and his administration’s top officials are never prosecuted, Reuters reports, citing a Trump administration official.

U.S. officials are also demanding that the ICC drop its investigations into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over charges related to Gaza, as well as a probe into potential war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

These demands have been made known to the court by the U.S. government, Reuters reports.

“There is growing concern … that in 2029 the ICC will turn its attention to the president, to the vice president, to the secretary of war and others, and pursue prosecutions against them,” the Trump administration official told Reuters. “That is unacceptable, and we will not allow it to happen.”

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    2 days ago

    Post 9/11 knee jerk responses that began to erode and destroy a lot of what made the US. The Taliban already won then and there.

    The US always has done heinous shit but it was always under the covers. Not blatantly out in the open.

    • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      The US were just as shitty before. They dropped the mask once they could stick a theme tune on war.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      3·
      2 days ago

      The US always has done heinous shit but it was always under the covers. Not blatantly out in the open.

      Uh… Vietnam?

      • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
        41·
        2 days ago

        Contra? (As an example of shit done under the table)

        Viet Nam was just the first conflict to be shown in all it’s horror, and the public didn’t like it. Most of the coverage of the world wars and Korea were almost entirely propaganda.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      Their goal was not to destroy the US per se, it was to just get them out of the region. Destroying might have been nice, but only in a way that destroyed their power.

      So an unleashed unhinged US was not something they wanted. Sure we might not have the freedom, but they never cared one way or another about that.