Administration

Trump brushes off questions about potential war crimes in Iran

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by Julia Manchester - 04/06/26 4:33 PM ET

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by Julia Manchester - 04/06/26 4:33 PM ET

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President Trump on Monday brushed off questions from reporters about whether strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran would constitute war crimes.

When asked by a New York Times reporter at the White House press briefing if he was concerned that bombing power plants and bridges, as he had threatened to do, constituted war crimes, Trump responded by railing against the Times and saying, “No, not at all.”

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” he continued. “Forty-seven years they’ve been negotiating with these people. They’re great negotiators.”

“They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen because we’ve had numerous presidents that were weak and ineffective, and afraid of Iran.”

“If you think … we’re going to allow them to have a nuclear weapon, you can tell your friends at The New York Times [it’s] not going to happen,” he said.

Trump was also asked multiple times earlier on Monday at the White House Easter Egg Roll about the issue.

“They killed 45,000 people in the last month, more than that. I think it could be as much as 60 [thousand],” Trump said when asked how it would not be considered a war crime to bomb Iran’s infrastructure.

“They kill protesters. They’re animals, and we have to stop them, and we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple,” he said.

On Sunday, Trump threatened to strike Iranian bridges and power plants if the country does not open the Strait of Hormuz.

International law experts are warning that following through on Trump’s threats of total destruction in Iran could constitute war crimes. On Thursday, more than 100 international law experts in the U.S. signed an open letter warning that U.S. strikes in Iran, including threatened strikes on energy infrastructure, could be deemed war crimes.

The U.S. has already faced backlash for the missile strike on the all-girls Iranian Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school. The strike killed at least 175 people, most of them children. There is an ongoing military investigation that preliminarily determined responsibility was on the U.S.

The U.S. and Iran received a ceasefire proposal from Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey that included a 45-day ceasefire and the Strait of Hormuz opening.

Trump told reporters earlier Monday that Iran made a “significant proposal” but that it was not good enough.

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