Trump getting terrorism advice from a guy wanted for war crimes in 120 countries is not the flex he thinks it is

There’s a particular brand of irony that only 2025 politics are capable of delivering, and we’ve just borne witness to a prime example of it thanks to Donald Trump.

Following the attack on National Guard members in Washington, D.C., the president signed an executive order designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria as terrorist organizations. And who was there to applaud this bold directive by the POTUS, you ask? Why, his favorite international fugitive, and the man who can’t set foot in around 125 countries without risking arrest for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

It’s one thing to blame Joe Biden for everything that happens under the sun, from inflation to bad weather, and weaponize one shooter’s actions into blanket racism against 19 countries. It’s quite another to parade around like you’ve won the moral high ground when your star endorsement comes from a guy whose plane has to play geographical hopscotch whenever he threads his way through international airspace.

Trump took to his Truth social page last night to proudly tout Benjamin Netanyahu’s praise of his executive order, conveniently ignoring the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC)—which the US helped establish, mind you—has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, legally requiring the 125 countries in its charter to apprehend him for war crimes including intentional starvation of civilians, murder, unlawful persecution, and attacks on civilian populations during the Gaza war.

Not exactly a glowing commendation

It gets better. Trump isn’t just taking advice from Netanyahu, but actively trying to whitewash his image. Per a new report by The Irish Times, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on several ICC officials, including French judge Nicolas Guillou, who now can’t use Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal, or credit cards. He also isn’t able to enter the United States any longer, even though he assisted the US justice department in Washington during the Obama years.

As Guillou noted in an interview with the French magazine Le Monde, being sanctioned means you’re blacklisted by the global banking system, placing you on the same list as ISIS and al-Qaeda members and effectively making every day life almost impossible. And what was his crime? Just doing his job at an international court the U.S. helped establish but now finds inconvenient.

Putting these sanctions into effect, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously called the ICC a “national security threat” and dismissed it as “lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel.” Which, when you think about it, is just a fancy way of saying international law is only valid when we agree with it. When we don’t, it’s lawfare. When our allies are accused, it’s persecution. And when our enemies are hunted, and only then, is it true justice.