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The US president insists that Netanyahu will not be arrested, even if the ICC issues a warrant.
Published on 20 Jul 2026
US President Donald Trump has rejected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest Israel’s prime minister on war charges if he visits 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 promise on Monday in a social media post that did not name Mamdani directly but praised Israel for supporting the US in its war against Iran.
Mamdani previously said his superiors are still considering whether to arrest Netanyahu if he attends the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
“I believe Prime Minister Netanyahu is in The Hague,” Mamdani he said in an interview published on Saturday.
International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant to Netanyahu in 2024, accusing him of violence in Israel’s war in Gaza.
“He is a war criminal who is accused by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani added, saying that his opinion is shared by many, given the actions the Israeli PM “has done in the past many years”.
Mamdani said he did not know if he had the authority to direct the police under his supervision to arrest the foreign leader and that he was “discussing” with the city’s law department.
He said: “Anything that the law allows me to do in New York City is what we can do, but we will not write our own laws to do that.
During the mayoral campaign, Mr. Mamdani warned that he would order the police to arrest Netanyahu if he entered the city, writing as a follow-up to the ICC warrant.
Netanyahu usually travels to New York every September for the UN conference.
Writing on X, Israel rejected Mamdani’s claims, calling the ICC a “kangaroo court” with its “false” mandate, and accusing him of trying to divert attention from his problems.
The ICC, established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, has powers that Israel denies; neither Israel nor the United States is a member of the court.
The Trump administration has implemented a campaign attempt to block the ICC, imposing sanctions on judges, prosecutors and groups seeking to pass judgments against Israel for human rights violations.
