‘I don’t need international law’

Need to know

• President Donald Trump has said the only guardrail he seeks to gain more global power is “my own morality.”

• In a new interview with The New York TimesHe said he did not need “international law” to guide his foreign policy approach

• Also in the interview, the president doubled down on his plans to take military action in Latin America, annex Greenland and more.

President Donald Trump has made it clear he will not be deterred by the law as he teases the takeover of the Western Hemisphere.

“I don’t need international law,” Trump said in a new interview The New York Times. “I’m not trying to hurt people.”

When pressed further, the president said he understood that his administration needed to comply with international law. However, he added, “it depends on what your definition of international law is.”

There is, Trump insisted, only “one thing” that could dampen his desire for global supremacy: “My own morality. My own mind. That’s the only thing that can stop me.”

The interview comes less than a week after Trump-directed U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, first lady Cilia Flores, amid “massive raids” in the capital, Caracas, and brought them to the U.S. to stand trial on multiple charges related to narco-terrorism.

Although Venezuela has installed an interim leader, Delsey Rodriguez, Trump has repeatedly said that the United States is now in charge of running the independent nation.

“It will be run very prudently, very fairly. And it will make a lot of money,” he said earlier. “You know they stole our oil. We built that whole industry and they took it over like we were nothing. So we did something about it. We’re late, but we did something about it.”

He later added, “We will sell large quantities of oil [from Venezuela] In other countries…we’re going to let the oil flow the way it’s supposed to flow.”

“We will make sure that the people of Venezuela are taken care of… You will have peace, justice… You will have a real country.”

He doesn’t plan to stop there. The president is also firm in his desire to annex Greenland, which is currently controlled by Denmark, a US NATO ally.

Trump acknowledged that “it may be an option” to protect the country’s relationship with NATO against seizing Greenland, a vital trade route between the US, Europe, China and Russia.

“It’s very strategic right now. Greenland is covered everywhere by Russian and Chinese ships,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Jan. 4. “We need Greenland from a national security point of view, and Denmark will not be able to do it.”

who New York the timeHe insisted that it was not enough to have the country controlled by an ally – he wanted exclusive, complete ownership.

“Because I think it’s psychologically necessary for success. I think ownership gives you one thing that you can’t do, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get just by signing a document,” Trump said.

Trump has also set his sights on Colombia, Cuba, Iran and Mexico.

“You have to do something with Mexico. Mexico has to get their act together because they’re pouring through Mexico and we’re going to do something,” he told reporters earlier, referring to drug cartels in the country.

“We want Mexico to do it. They are capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico,” Trump added.

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Trump quoted Colombian President Gustavo Petro as saying his country is “run by a sick man who loves to make cocaine and sell it to the United States, and he’s not going to do it much longer.”

Talked to Petro the time Trump expressed concern that the US would attack Colombia, as it did in Venezuela, before calling to discuss the threats.

“We are in danger,” said the Colombian president. “Because the threat is real. It’s made by Trump.”

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