by Jacob G. Hornberger

April 7, 2026

President Trump is warning Iran that the “whole civilization will die” if Iranian leaders fail to open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. tonight. He is promising to bomb power plants, bridges, and other infrastructure with the aim of sending Iran back to the Stone Age.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government, which is serving as a partner in the U.S. war on Iran, isn’t waiting for Trump’s deadline. It is already bombing universities, pharmaceuticals, and infrastructure within the country.

Commentators are pointing out that if Trump follows through with his vow, he and the Pentagon will be committing a war crime because they will be attacking the civilian population rather than military targets.

But why should Trump worry about that? He knows full well that he can commit any act he wants, including criminal acts, and will not be held to account for it. The same, of course, holds true for the Pentagon, the CIA, and the rest of the national-security establishment.

There are two entities about which Trump would ordinarily have to be concerned.

One is Congress, which, under the Constitution, has the power to impeach and remove him from office for committing what the Constitution calls a “high crime or misdemeanor.” Clearly, a war crime would be considered a “high crime or misdemeanor.”

Yet, Trump has nothing to fear because he controls both houses of Congress though his loyal and deferential Republican toadies. They’re afraid to buck Trump even on minor things. What are the chances that the House of Representatives would oppose Trump in a major way, such as by impeaching him for committing a war crime? No chance at all. Every Republican in Congress knows that if he were to buck Trump in any way, minor or major, Trump would go after him with everything he’s got, much as he is doing to Republican Congressman Tom Massie, who bucked Trump with respect to the Epstein files. No Republican congressman wants to be treated like Massie and so they will defer to Trump no matter what Trump does, including committing war crimes against the Iranian people.

The other entity is the federal judicial system, which has the power of indicting people for crimes. But Trump controls the Justice Department, which is the entity that secures indictments from grand juries. There is no possibility whatsoever that the Trump-controlled Justice Department would ever seek a criminal indictment against Trump for supposedly committing war crimes against Iran.

Moreover, let’s assume that a “runaway” federal grand jury returned an indictment against Trump over the objection of the U.S. Attorney in charge of that district. All that would happen is that the Justice Department would ask the District Judge to dismiss it, and every single federal judge in the land would quickly grant the request.

Even if a judge didn’t grant the dismissal, the Supreme Court would immediately order the dismissal on the basis that the president and the national-security establishment are absolutely immune from both criminal and civil liability for any acts performed within the official scope of their duties. Moreover, the Supreme Court would cite some judicially created doctrine, like the “political question” doctrine, that would give it the excuse to defer to the president, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, including when it comes to the commission of war crimes.

Think about the Pentagon’s killings in cold blood of those suspected drug traffickers in those little boats in the Caribbean as well as the “second tap” killings in cold blood of survivors from the initial attacks. Those are essentially governmental assassinations or murders because under our system of government suspected criminals are supposed to be taken into custody and accorded trials, where the government has to prove them guilty, most often to a jury.

Yet, how many of the killers have been indicted for murder? Indeed, we aren’t even permitted to know the identities of those who carried out the killings. There won’t be any indictments whatsoever — not of the killers and not of President Trump, who ordered the killings to be committed. Again, don’t forget that Trump controls the Justice Department, which controls who gets indicted. And, again, he controls the Congress, which has the power of impeachment.

What about the International Criminal Court? It’s the entity that is currently prosecuting Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, for ordering the killings of drug-war suspects in his country. Again, Trump has nothing to worry about. That’s because the U.S. government has steadfastly refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Therefore, it lacks the power to bring to justice any U.S official who is accused of committing war crimes.

There is one thing about which Trump might be a bit afraid — the mid-term elections — which might explain his bizarre profanity-laden Easter Day message to the Iranians to open the Strait of Hormuz or else suffer massive bombing destruction of their country. Trump knows that if gasoline prices here in the United States continue to be high in November, especially in combination with the economic suffering among Americans from Trump’s tariff schemes, American voters might decide to deliver control over at least the House of Representatives to the Democrats.

That, of course, would raise the possibility of impeachment. But since Trump would still control the Senate, there is no reasonable possibility that he would be convicted by the 2/3 vote required in the Senate. So, again, Trump has nothing to worry about it when it comes to war crimes. But at least it would be interesting to see Trump have to legally justify the commission of such war crimes and non-war crimes (e.g., drug-war killings) to the American people in a formal proceeding.