Former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull: U.S. Has “Clearly” Violated International Law
March 8, 2026
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just shattered the “”loyal ally”” delusion. He isn’t whispering; he’s shouting it from the rooftops: The United States is treating international law like a suggestion, not a requirement. Whether it’s the war on Iran or the shredding of global trade rules, Turnbull is warning that Washington has become a “”bully”” that only respects pushback.
“We can no longer assume we can rely on America.” For years, we’ve been told the alliance is our bedrock. But Turnbull is exposing the cracks. He’s calling out the AUKUS deal as a “”shocking”” loss of sovereignty and demanding that Australia stops “”crawling”” and starts standing up for its own interests.
@financialreview
English Script:
Malcolm Turnbull: The United States now under this administration regards itself as being entitled to what you might call sovereign exceptionalism. In other words, laws may apply to other countries, to lesser nations, but they do not apply to the United States. This war is clearly in breach of international law, and there isn’t an international law in the world that doesn’t say it is, and is clearly in breach of the UN charter. The United States under the Trump administration expressly disavows international law. I mean, the National Defense Strategy said, and I quote, that the international rules based order is a Cloud Castle obstruction. So they were ridiculing international law, kidnaping of the head of state of one country Venezuela, the assassination of the head of state of another country Iran. And Trump, to give him credit, has been completely honest about that. He said the only limit on his conduct is his own morality. But what is the long term significance of that? The erosion of the rule of law. When I say not just the erosion in the sense of noncompliance, but the disavowal of its application to the most powerful economy in the world.
