Threatening to destroy Iran’s electricity grid and to reduce the country of 90 million to destitution, US President Donald Trump is shattering precedent by not just accepting but gloating about acts seen as potential war crimes.

The consequences for Trump, at least in the near term, are probably none, experts say, as his administration works hard to undermine international institutions tasked with keeping norms.

The Geneva Conventions governing the laws of war, agreed following World War II, prohibit destruction of “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”

In 2024, the International Criminal Court indicted four Russian military officials over systematic strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.