Trump says he ‘doesn’t need’ international law

The US president has said he is bound only by his “own morality” after a military raid against Venezuela and threats to annex Greenland

US President Donald Trump has said he does not need to follow international law and is guided solely by what he described as his own morality.

The remark comes after the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by American commandos last Saturday. Also in recent days, Trump and several officials from his administration have repeated that the US would take possession of Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland, one way or the other.

In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, the US president made clear that he would not be restrained in exercising his powers as commander-in-chief. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he stated.

When pressed further as to whether he really thought that Washington did not need to abide by global norms, Trump seemed to somewhat soften his stance. However, the Republican hastened to add that “it depends on what your definition of international law is,” suggesting that the final say on its applicability to the US would lie solely with him.

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On Thursday, Trump signed a memorandum suspending support for a total of 66 international organizations, agencies, and commissions, including several UN bodies, “that operate contrary to US national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty.”

In his interview with the Times, the US president doubled down on his insistence that Greenland should come under Washington’s control.

Speaking to CNN on Monday, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, reiterated that Washington’s “formal position” is that the “US should have Greenland as part of the overall security apparatus.”

That same day, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she believed that the “US president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland.” She warned that “if the US were to attack another NATO country militarily, everything would stop – including NATO itself.”

Earlier this week, a group of several EU leaders plus the UK issued a carefully worded joint statement defending Greenland’s status as part of the Kingdom of Denmark.