Donald Trump Administration Legal Constraints

Axios reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pledge of 'no quarter, no mercy for our enemies' in the Iran war conflicts with longstanding U.S. and international law that explicitly forbids declaring 'no quarter' or threatening to fight on that basis. NYU law professor Ryan Goodman says Hegseth is 'putting the American military on a track to lawlessness' and urges him to retract the statement, noting that the Lieber Code, the Hague and Geneva conventions, and the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual all treat 'no quarter' orders as a war crime akin to killing wounded or surrendering fighters. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) amplified the concern on X, stressing that 'no quarter' means taking no prisoners and that such an order would be illegal and would endanger U.S. troops by inviting reciprocity. The article situates Hegseth’s language in a broader pattern of increasingly aggressive Trump‑era rhetoric about the Iran war, including Trump videos promising 'certain death' to IRGC fighters and his earlier attacks on lawmakers who reminded service members they must refuse manifestly unlawful orders.