JUST IN: ICC has ‘no legitimacy’, Trump tells UN

Trump largely kept to his script during remarks to the U.N. General Assembly, emphasizing U.S. independence from international bodies, and articulating a vision of “principled realism” and national sovereignty. “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy,” Trump said in his second address to the General Assembly in New York. Trump defended the U.S. decision to pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council in June, and lashed into the ICC, which his national security adviser John Bolton declared earlier this month powerless to investigate alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. “The United States will provide no support and recognition to the International Criminal Court,” Trump said. “As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority. The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process.” “America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism around the world,” he said. “Responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty.” In criticizing the U.N. Human Rights Council, Trump said “we will not return” to the organization — led in part by some of the world’s most despotic countries – until it is reformed. “I spoke before this body last year and warned that the U.N. Human Rights Council had become a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abuses while bashing America and its many friends,” Trump said. “Our ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, laid out a clear agenda for reform, despite repeated warnings. No action at all was taken. The United States took the only responsible course. We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and we will not return until real reform is enacted.” (AFP)]]>