{"id":100445,"date":"2026-04-07T14:24:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/pressed-on-possible-war-crimes-trump-peddled-3-answers-they-were-all-unacceptable\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:24:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:24:57","slug":"pressed-on-possible-war-crimes-trump-peddled-3-answers-they-were-all-unacceptable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/pressed-on-possible-war-crimes-trump-peddled-3-answers-they-were-all-unacceptable\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressed on possible war crimes, Trump peddled 3 answers. They were all unacceptable."},"content":{"rendered":"

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After months of rhetoric about possible war crimes in Iran, Donald Trump upped the ante on Sunday morning, publishing an unhinged threat<\/a> to his social media platform in which he explicitly vowed to target Iranian power plants and bridges. As Easter Sunday progressed, the president did brief interviews with several media outlets to echo that point<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported<\/a> soon after that, according to legal experts, historians and former U.S. officials, \u201cNo other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A day later, Trump fielded questions from reporters \u2014 first at a White House Easter Egg Roll event, then at a White House press conference \u2014 who pressed the Republican on his willingness to target Iranian infrastructure, in defiance of international law.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

The president, who must have realized he\u2019d face these questions and had plenty of time to huddle with his aides and prepare coherent answers, peddled three distinct responses to the line of inquiry.<\/p>\n

1. Refuse to talk about his plans for possible war crimes.<\/strong> MS NOW\u2019s Lindsey Pipia asked, \u201cAre you committed to committing a war crime in this war with Iran?\u201d Trump heard the question but refused to answer it. \u201cWhat else?\u201d he said to no one in particular, as if the question wasn\u2019t worth his time or consideration.<\/p>\n

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2. Change the definition of \u201cwar crime.\u201d<\/strong> As part of a separate exchange, Trump was asked whether he considered hitting civilian infrastructure to be a war crime. \u201cYou know what\u2019s a war crime?\u201d he responded<\/a>. \u201cHaving a nuclear weapon, allowing a sick country with demented leaders to have a nuclear weapon. That\u2019s a war crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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