"I’m just a small-town international relations professor, but I think it should be a huge, presidency-ending scandal that the President of the [United States] regularly violates the UN Charter by threatening the territorial conquest of other UN member-states & our NATO treaty allies," said Mark Copelovitch, professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin. The professor linked to Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, which states "the organization based on the principle of the sovereign equality" and expressly forbids "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state." Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has threatened to acquire, through force or otherwise, Canada, Cuba, Gaza, Greenland, Panama Canal, Strait of Hormuz and Venezuela, pointed out Eric Columbus, senior editor for Lawfare and a former Obama appointee. "Again, maybe we, as Americans, have just decided that our government’s signature & ratification of treaties doesn’t matter, [because] we’re special & can just do whatever we want in [international relations]," Copelovitch said. "Fine. But then we must expect all other countries can do that, too. They also have agency & domestic politics, after all." 'Presidency-ending scandal' flagged by expert: 'Should be huge'
