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Quick Take
In 2017, President Donald Trump expressed admiration for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drug suspects. But social media posts have falsely claimed that Trump has ordered Duterte’s release from the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity. We could find no response from Trump regarding Duterte’s arrest.
Full Story
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by police in Manila on March 11 and was flown to The Hague, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
A March 12 ICC press release said the court “found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Duterte is individually responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator for the crime against humanity of murder, allegedly committed in the Philippines” between November 2011 and March 2019.
ICC judges “found that there was an attack directed against a civilian population pursuant to an organisational policy while Mr Duterte was the head of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), and pursuant to a State policy while he was the President of the Philippines. Moreover, there are reasonable grounds to believe that this attack was both widespread and systematic: the alleged attack took place over a period of several years and resulted in thousands of deaths,” the press release said.
The ICC charges refer to Duterte’s anti-drug war during his years as mayor of Davao and as Philippine president, when more than 6,000 suspects were killed without trial by Duterte’s police during anti-drug operations.
Duterte has said he did not authorize extrajudicial killings, but he “openly threatened drug suspects with death and ordered law enforcers to shoot suspects, who threaten them with harm,” the Associated Press reported in a 2022 article.
Duterte’s war on drugs drew the admiration of Donald Trump during his first term as president. The New York Times reported that Trump told Duterte in a 2017 phone call, “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that,” Trump said.
But since Duterte’s extradition to the Netherlands by the ICC, social media posts have fabricated claims about Trump’s response to Duterte’s arrest.
A March 13 Facebook post falsely claimed, in part, “President Donald Trump has reportedly signed an executive order demanding the immediate release of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte from the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Sources close to the White House claim that Trump, calling Duterte ‘a great friend and a tough guy,’ acted swiftly after Duterte’s arrest.”
The post went on to wrongly claim there was an “Executive Order 2025-03: Restoration of Justice for Allied Leaders,” saying that it “declares that the ICC has ‘no right to meddle in the affairs of strong leaders doing their jobs.’ The document allegedly mandates that U.S. forces stationed in Europe ‘extract and return’ Duterte to the Philippines within 48 hours, threatening economic sanctions against the Netherlands if the ICC fails to comply.”
Another Facebook post — which includes an image of Trump with Duterte generated with artificial intelligence — refers to the same fictional executive order and claims it calls for the deployment of “a specialized unit of U.S. Navy SEALs” to the Netherlands to extract Duterte “with all necessary equipment, firepower, and authority to get the job done.”
But there is no record of any such executive order or presidential action by Trump related to Duterte’s arrest. One red flag in these posts is the number of the supposed EO: “2025-03.” That’s not how executive orders are numbered. The Federal Register publishes all executive orders, and they are easily searchable through the American Presidency Project’s website.
In addition, we could not find any reports of Trump issuing a statement in response to the ICC arrest of the former Philippine president. We reached out to the White House for comment on the social media claims but did not receive a response.
The Philippines-based fact-checking website Vera Files debunked similar social media claims that were misleadingly presented as if they were from a BBC News report. Vera Files said, “There are no verified records of Trump or any other official U.S. government agency” expressing support for Duterte following his arrest.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Meta to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Meta has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Gomez, Jim. “Drug killings leave agony, savage facet to Duterte’s legacy.” Associated Press. 29 Jun 2022.
Gomez, Jim. “Philippine ex-leader Duterte is being flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity.” Associated Press. 11 Mar 2025.
Guinto, Joel. “Philippines’ Duterte in The Hague after ICC arrest over drug war.” BBC. 12 Mar 2025.
International Criminal Court. Press release. “Situation in the Philippines: Rodrigo Roa Duterte in ICC custody.” 12 Mar 2025.
Reuters. “What happened in Philippine drug war that led to Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest?” 11 Mar 2025.
Sanger, David E. and Maggie Haberman. “Trump Praises Duterte for Philippine Drug Crackdown in Call Transcript.” New York Times. 23 May 2017.
Vera Files. “FACT CHECK: Trump statement on Duterte arrest FAKE.” 18 Mar 2025.
White House. Presidential Actions. whitehouse.gov. Accessed 19 Mar 2025.