Trump rejects Mamdani threat to arrest Israel’s Netanyahu for war crimes

United States President Donald Trump has dismissed a threat from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister for war crimes should he visit the city.

Trump insisted that Benjamin Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form” while in the US.

The president made the pledge on Monday in a social media post that did not name Mamdani directly but credited Israel with helping the US in its war on Iran.

Mamdani earlier said his administration is still considering whether to arrest Netanyahu should he attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this September.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said in an interview published on Saturday.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024, charging him with committing war crimes during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani added, saying that his view is shared by many, given the actions the Israeli PM has “wrought over these last many years”.

Mamdani said he remains uncertain whether he has the legal authority to direct the police department, which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader and that he is in “an active conversation” with the city’s Law Department.

“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end,” he said.

During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani warned that he would order police to arrest Netanyahu if he set foot in the city, framing it as enforcement of the ICC warrant.

Netanyahu typically travels to New York each September for the UN gathering.

Posting on X, Israel dismissed Mamdani’s remarks, calling the ICC a “kangaroo court” and its warrant “bogus”, while accusing him of trying to divert attention from his own troubles.

The ICC, established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, has jurisdiction which Israel rejects; neither Israel nor the United States is a member of the court.

The Trump administration has launched a campaign to try to disable the ICC, imposing sanctions on judges, prosecutors and groups that seek rulings against Israel over allegations of human rights violations.