As far as much of the legal community is concerned, the president of the United States has declared to the world his intention to commit a war crime. Were he to carry out his threat to destroy all of Iran’s bridges and power plants, Donald Trump would be in breach of international law, many legal experts have insisted. You cannot, they argue, simply destroy a country’s transport and power infrastructure and get away with it. Is Mr Trump concerned about committing possible war crimes? “I don’t need international law,” he declared in January when the New York Times took him to task over an increasingly coercive foreign policy that had seen his administration order strikes on civilian boats allegedly transporting drugs to the US and seize Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president.

Source: International New York Times April 07, 2026 18:47 UTC