Indeed, the legal theories the administration has floated to defend its actions draw on a historical source Trump once disavowed: the arch-interventionist claim that the U.S. has an inalienable right to police the world. Trump’s invasion of Venezuela to capture its president cannot be squared with Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, which bars member nations from deploying “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” This principle—the most important rule of international law today—should bind the United States, which ratified the charter in 1945. And the rest of the world has no means to secure accountability for the United States, which does not even recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Author: Mark Joseph Stern
Published at: 2026-01-05 21:53:57
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