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.”

  • SereneSadie@quokk.au
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    11 hours ago

    America doesn’t recognise or uphold it to begin with.

    Can’t have it both ways, ginger turnip.

  • shiroininja@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Great thing is they can reverse it if they did say yes. Let him do what he wants and then hang him for it. If it’s truly heinous, who’s going to stop the world body?

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    As they conduct more terrorist actions on fishing boats, no less.

    Also…2029? I’m not 100% sure cheeto mcpedo is going to make it to 2026. He doesn’t look that hot…

  • billwashere@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Can the rest of us push the ICC to prosecute him extra? … not that it’ll matter much but anything that pisses him off more I’m totally for.

  • EvilBit@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    No one demands to be exempt from prosecution for war crimes unless they intend to commit or have already committed war crimes.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Of course he did. If he ordered the attacks on those boats as an act of war, it was a war crime. If he didn’t do it as an act of war, it was an act of terrorism, which means either way… Everyone who followed the orders all the way down the chain, including him, should see life in prison if the world was just.

  • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    I, in an innocent fashion, do this type of thing with all the police, politicians, and judges in my area. Obviously, I never do anything illegal. I’m the picture of law abiding integrity and blamelessness, obviously.
    I just want to make sure I’m protected from…idk, stuff? Or aliens?
    Anyways, it’s definitely totally an innocent thing to strongarm, bribe, and blackmail all these powerful people, police and judges…

    Right, I’m off to do some…things. All of which will be legal and I will definitely not be murdering or raping. Oh no, nope. No way.

    Where’s my balaclava??

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    1 day ago

    "That is unacceptable, and we will not allow it to happen.”

    Fuck you ❄️

    I demand we make it happen

    “Lawmakers should undo them legislatively and repeal the ‘Hague Invasion Act’ — or at least amend it to no longer shield the President and Defense Secretary,” Williams went on, referring to a 2003 law permitting the U.S. to use military force to extract any official from the U.S. or an allied country who is detained by the ICC in the Hague.

    … Even in 2003, who the fuck thought yeah this is probably fine and nothing weird or evil.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      1 day 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.uk
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        20 hours ago

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

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        20 hours 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.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        1 day 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
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          21 hours 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.

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    I’m not sure which is more delusional, thinking that this would actually work or thinking that anyone affiliated with the United States (or the West in general) is ever going to be prosecuted by the ICC.

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      23 hours ago

      I’m not sure which is more delusional

      These men have succeeded for centuries (possibly millennia) by preemptively creating the reality they want people to perceive through action, and then just pretending the reality they created is the truth. By acting their preemptive reality, (essentially being the change they wish to see in a really fucked up kind of way, and creating the fucked up world they want to live in), they have created their own success and the history leading up to this point, leaving us to study the pieces of fiction they used to destroy. I think this may be one of the rare cases where we could stand to take a page from their book (except the reality we create will remain fact based).

      It really doesn’t matter that these men want us to believe they have special snowflake status that places them above the law, in addition to not caring that we know they’re also terrorists and war criminals.

      They committed cold blooded murder of innocent civilians. The families of these civilians are already suing on behalf of their deceased loved ones. There are witnesses who will testify that the secretary of war demanded a second strike be sent to kill every innocent civilian still clinging to pieces of their destroyed boat in order to leave no survivors. There are survivors from follow up attacks who weren’t even arrested, because they had never committed any crime in the first place.

      These men are a threat to civilization, and we cannot allow them to destroy what we have worked so hard to build. The citizens of the United States and the citizens of the world demand justice, for our individual self preservation and the preservation of all civil society. We demand these men are held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

  • SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    Trump wants to be responsible for running the USA and at the same time Trump does NOT want to be responsible for running the USA.

    The Trumpian paradox.

    By contradicting his own statements he can take credit for either statement and be responsible for neither.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      “I’ll be honest, David. I want all of the credit and none of the blame.” —Michael Scott

      • SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        There we go!

        Good old fashion double standards. I get in trouble when I put the eggs on the bottom of your grocery bag.

        • WildPalmTree@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          Unless they are individual eggs and not in a paper/carton/wellpapp enclosure, they should be just fine. Eggs are sturdy as hell and with some load balancing, they can take most things placed in a bag.

  • mrmaplebar@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    The ICC’s has no legitimacy if they’re unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes no matter where they happen.

    • hanrahan@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      They can’t. You need to be able to back your threats up, what do when the US invades the Hauge ? Throw pencils at them ?

      https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law

      U.S. President George Bush today signed into law the American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002, which is intended to intimidate countries that ratify the treaty for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The new law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the court, which is located in The Hague. This provision, dubbed the “Hague invasion clause,” has caused a strong reaction from U.S. allies around the world, particularly in the Netherlands.

      In addition, the law provides for the withdrawal of U.S. military assistance from countries ratifying the ICC treaty, and restricts U.S. participation in United Nations peacekeeping unless the United States obtains immunity from prosecution. At the same time, these provisions can be waived by the president on “national interest” grounds.