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VILLAGE IDIOT: WORLD LEADERS
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026
World leaders turned toadies as Trump
dismantles international law and pollutes
the discourse, without concerted opposition.
Most of the world, notably its democracies,
has deferred to the authoritarian narcissist
Donald Trump, one of the most dangerous
men of all time.
Trump aims to undermine international
law and rules; and the UN-Charter and the
treaty architecture that underpins it.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Gaza.
The US has given at least $21.7 billion in
military aid to Israel since war in Gaza
began, while shielding it diplomatically at
the UN. This support persisted despite the
documentation of at least 67,000 civilian
deaths, mass displacement, and famine
risk, and despite ICJ provisional measures
ordering steps to prevent genocidal
acts. Continuing arms transfers without
meaningful conditionality engages third-
February-March 2026 80
state obligations under Articles I and III of the
Genocide Convention, as well as Common
Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, which
requires states to ensure respect for
international humanitarian law.
In June 2025, US forces bombed Iranian
nuclear facilities. In the absence of
Security Council authorisation, these
strikes constituted a use of force contrary
to UN Charter Article 2(4), with no publicly
demonstrated necessity or immediacy
suffi cient to meet the strict conditions for
Article 51 self-defence.
In January 2026, US forces removed
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and
transferred him to US custody fl outing the
Charter’s prohibitions on intervention and
coercion against political independence,
protected by Articles 2(1) and 2(4).
Trump’s coercive threats regarding
Greenland (as well as to many countries in
South America) challenged the principle of
sovereign equality.
His sweeping unilateral tariffs — imposed
outside multilateral processes — are
inconsistent with WTO Article I (Most-
Favoured-Nation treatment) and Article II
(binding tariff commitments), triggering
extensive retaliatory measures.
According to a study in The Lancet in 2025,
reductions in USAID funding effected by
Trump “would result in approximately
1 776 539 all-age deaths and 689 900
deaths in children younger than fi ve years.
The complete defunding of USAID would
cause an estimated 2 450 000 all-age
deaths annually”.
The murder with impunity of innocents on
the streets by ICE is defi nitive evidence of
fascism and anathema to democracy.
Trump’s comprehensive dishonesty, venality
and rhetoric against vulnerable minorities,
including foul racism against Somalis, has
polluted the discourse forever.
Still, on 2 February, Micheál Martin told
the Irish Times: “But I would be cautious
... standing up sounds great and all of
that, but be under no illusion that if there
is an implosion in the US-EU relationship,
everybody suffers”.
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