Trump says only one thing can limit his power, and critics are stunned
President Donald Trump sparked fresh outrage for his comments about what he believes are the limits, or lack thereof, of his international power.
In an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, Trump was asked if there were any limitations on what he could do on the world stage, following the U.S. military operation that detained Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and amid renewed rhetoric from senior Trump administration officials about the possibility of the U.S. taking control of Greenland.
Read the full interview in The New York Times.
“Yes, there is one thing,” Trump responded. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”
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Trump briefly acknowledged that the United States is expected to comply with the rules-based international order, before immediately adding a caveat that “it depends what your definition of international law is.”
Critics reacted harshly on social media.
Zeteo editor Mehdi Hasan wrote that Trump’s response is “what dictators say.”
Trump’s first-term Homeland Security official, Miles Taylor, author of the “anonymous” 2018 essay that made him the subject of a Justice Department investigation, said the comments revealed “the mind of a fascist.”