Trump Bullying Nations Into Quitting International Criminal Court – The Tuesday AM Quickie 7/28/26
I wrote about how ICE is expanding its concentration camp network at home and abroad, and the brave community members fighting back. Corey returns tomorrow, see you next week. -Whitney
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ON THE SHOW TODAY
7/28: Emma is hosting solo today. She has two guests: Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian, professor of history in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, and director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies. Ilan will discuss the recent developments in the West Bank; and Katie Bergh, senior policy analyst on the Food Assistance team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Katie will discuss the CBPP’s analysis: SNAP Tracker: People Are Losing Food Assistance as the Harmful 2025 Republican Reconciliation Law Is Implemented.
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Today you’ll read about the fake tip authorities used to separate Pete Buttigieg from his kids, the nuclear safety agency proposal to lower its safety standards, and a new lawsuit over Trump’s secret ICE protester dossier.
THE BIG NEWS
Trump Telling Nations to Leave International Criminal Court or Else
Trump is gutting the International Criminal Court by bullying member nations into leaving, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. Chad is the latest country to exit; it left on Monday after US Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank W. Garcia Jr., “pressed the government to reconsider its membership” via phone a few days before.
“The American side expressed its concerns about the functioning of this institution and called on Chad to review its accession to the Rome Statute,” according to a statement from Chad’s government. Garcia has had his job for less than two months. Before then, he founded and sold Via Stelle, “a defense and intelligence consultancy,” as Al Jazeera put it in May. Before that, he was chief of staff at the National Reconnaissance Office, which is the US agency that designs and operates spy satellites. He has never written anything of note about Africa and he is a virtual unknown in African academic and policy circles. If you called him a spy, I would find it hard to argue. Anyway, he gets to dictate what the sovereign nations of Africa can and can’t do.
Chad’s withdrawal comes after the Friday withdrawal of Venezuela, which is run by Trump’s right-wing puppet, interim president Delcy Rodriguez, and the earlier exits of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The latest departures from the international court responsible for prosecuting individuals for crimes against humanity and war crimes comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised last week to “systematically disable” it. They also follow the court's issuance of arrest warrants two years ago against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – warrants that the federal government should execute when Netanyahu arrives in DC this week to pretend to mourn his similarly bloodthirsty and warmongering friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).