Trump’s Favorite Fascist Vows to Undermine ICC on Netanyahu Arrest

The far-right Hungarian prime minister and friend of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, is thumbing his nose at the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Orbán has invited Netanyahu to Hungary in defiance of the ICC’s arrest warrants, which were also issued for former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. The Hungarian leader called the warrants a “complete defamation” of international law and claimed they will worsen conflict in the Middle East.

“This is wrong in itself,” Orbán told Hungarian state radio Friday. “So there is no other choice here: We have to confront this decision, and so later today I will invite the prime minister of the Israelis, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary.”

Netanyahu and Gallant were charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, which has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians including more than 17,000 children, all likely massive undercounts. Estimates in July from the medical journal The Lancet say the death toll ​​could exceed 186,000.

Trump and America’s far right have long admired Orbán, with conservatives praising his authoritarian style of leadership. The conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which authored the Project 2025 manifesto, goes out of its way to promote the Hungarian leader. Trump and Orbán get along very well, with the president-elect meeting him multiple times over the past year.

The two authoritarians have a love of Netanyahu in common, with Trump praising the Israeli leader and absurdly accusing President Biden (who called the ICC warrants against Netanyahu “outrageous”) of being too tough on him. As long as Orbán and Trump are in charge of Hungary and the U.S., respectively, wanted fugitive Netanyahu can probably count on the two countries to provide him safe havens from the ICC arrest warrant, because fascists look out for one another.

Senator Tom Cotton threatened to invade a U.S. ally on behalf of Israel’s genocidal regime. 

The International Criminal Court issued fresh arrest warrants Thursday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau and Israel’s former Foreign Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as  Hamas’s military leader Mohammad Dief, alleging that they’d committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

While only a handful of the 124 member countries have signaled their willingness to follow through on the warrants, the Netherlands, where the ICC is located, made itself particularly clear: “We are obliged to cooperate with the ICC … we abide 100 percent by the Rome Statute,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp on Thursday.

Cotton, a staunch ally of Israel, made a thinly veiled threat to take military action against the Netherlands if they deign to comply with the warrants they are legally required to comply with as ICC member states. 

“The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic. Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it,” the Arkansas Republican wrote in a post on X. 

The Hague Invasion Act empowers the United States to free its allies from the clutches of the ICC using “necessary and appropriate” means—but Cotton’s implication promises something much darker and full of “woe.” 

It seems Cotton has maintained the same bloodthirsty attitude from more than a year ago, when he said that “Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas—Hamas killed women and children in Israel last weekend.”

It’s clear that Cotton cannot see that any other state actor has a responsibility for Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 44,000 people—including the U.S., which has readily funded Israel’s atrocities. The U.S. has consistently avoided any measures holding Israel accountable, backing off its hollow threats to withhold military support.

The Republican vision for the Department of Education’s destruction goes far beyond Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Republican Senator Mike Rounds introduced a bill that would totally abolish the department. “The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic Department that causes more harm than good,” said Rounds in a statement. “For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education. I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision.… This legislation is a roadmap to eliminating the federal Department of Education by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong.”

House Republicans are attacking the Department of Education too. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie told ABC News that he’d bring forth department-destroying legislation of his own in the coming weeks.

“There’ll be one sentence—only thing that will change is the date: The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2026,” Massie said. He has been trying to tear down the Department since 2023.

The bills will likely have strong support from the president-elect, as the elimination of the department was a central component of his successful campaign.Trump’s nominee for the Department of Education, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, also shares these wanton views. And with Republican control imminent at all levels federally, it seems possible that this bureaucratic nightmare could soon become a reality.

Donald Trump has tapped one of his impeachment attorneys, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, to lead the Justice Department.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans—Not anymore,” Trump said Thursday in a statement. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Bondi replaced ex-Florida Representative Matt Gaetz as the top contender for attorney general after he withdrew his nomination Thursday. Insiders believed that Gaetz never had a chance at passing the Senate’s rigorous nomination process, especially as the alleged sexual abuser faced intense scrutiny over the details of two federal investigations related to sex trafficking accusations.

Gaetz hurriedly withdrew his nomination following news that the House Ethics Committee had obtained evidence that there was a second incident in which the ex-congressman slept with a minor.

As one of the few Trump nominees with relevant experience, Bondi could prove equally if not more dangerous than Gaetz in the crucial law enforcement role—as well as a relative shoo-in. Assuming that all Democrats will vote against Trump’s nominees, the president-elect can only afford to lose three Republican votes to squeeze his candidates into the executive branch. Bondi, who served more than 18 years as a prosecutor, stands against a background of Trump nominees that authoritarianism scholars have described as “anti-qualified.”

Bondi and Trump have been longtime allies. In 2013, his charity (illegally) issued $25,000 to her reelection bid for Florida attorney general—while her office was weighing whether to pursue charges against Trump University (she ultimately did not). Bondi was a star player on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment, and was a vocal opponent of Jack Smith during Trump’s post-2020 legal woes, accusing the special counsel of “weaponising our legal system” for trying to hold the former president’s feet to the fire.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had the perfect response to Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s new gig as Congress’s billionaire babysitter.

The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that it would create a new subcommittee expressly for the purpose of working with the Department of Government Efficiency, the meme-based advisory group led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, that plans to slash trillions of dollars’ worth of essential government services for the purpose of eradicating the administrative state and racking up new government contracts to replace it. 

Greene is reportedly set to head the new subcommittee, and Ocasio-Cortez managed to find the silver lining.

“This is good, actually. She barely shows up and doesn’t do the reading,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X Thursday. “To borrow a phrase I saw elsewhere, it’s like giving someone an unplugged controller.”

“Absolutely dying at those two now getting assigned the ‘privilege’ of ‘working’ with MTG,” she wrote in a separate post. “That is actually hilarious. Enjoy, fellas! Very prestigious post you have there.”

Representative Jamie Raskin also weighed in on just how ridiculous Republicans’ plan is to shrink the size of government by creating a new committee. 

“It’s hard to keep track of all the new departments and bureaucracies the Republicans are setting up to study the size and efficiency of government,” Raskin said in a statement. “But isn’t that what Chairman Comer and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability actually said they were doing over the last two years? Where’s their report and recommendations? Perhaps the impeachment flop derailed them a bit.”

“So now a noted student of American government, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, will chair a subcommittee to work with two unvetted billionaires who stand to receive billions more in government contracts and subsidies from the government under Trump,” Raskin said. “That’s why Democrats will stay focused on waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.  The government belongs to the people, not the billionaire oligarchs.”

Musk and Ramaswamy have already outlined their plans to strip funding from public broadcasting, Planned Parenthood, and “entitlement programs,” which likely include Medicare and Medicaid. It may be a blessing that they now have to work with the congressperson more interested in pushing outlandish, and antisemitic, conspiracy theories than actually governing.