In a powerful and long-overdue move, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Trump administration will launch a full-scale diplomatic campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC) “brick by brick, if necessary.”
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Using every tool at America’s disposal—sanctions, travel restrictions, pressure on allies to withdraw from the court, and threats to withdraw U.S. security assistance from states that support it—Rubio made clear that the United States will no longer tolerate this rogue court, which he described as a grave threat to U.S. sovereignty.
This is the kind of decisive action I called for in a November 2024 Newsmax op-ed after the ICC issued politically motivated arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Those warrants resulted from growing hostility toward Israel, antisemitism in the UN and other international organizations, and years of efforts by some prior U.S. administrations to legitimize a court the United States never joined and has long viewed as a threat.
In response to the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the late Senator Lindsey Graham called the ICC a “rogue and politically motivated organization” and threatened to sanction states that cooperated with the Netanyahu and Gallant warrants “into economic oblivion.”
President Clinton signed the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, in 2000 but did not submit it to the Senate for ratification due to strong bipartisan opposition. Senators feared the ICC would become an unaccountable global tribunal that could undermine U.S. sovereignty and subject American officials and service members to prosecution by foreign judges without due process.
In 2002, the Bush administration formally unsigned the ICC treaty and negotiated more than 100 bilateral agreements to protect Americans from ICC jurisdiction. That same year, Congress passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act—famously dubbed the “Hague Invasion Act”—which authorizes the president to use all necessary means, including military force, to secure the release of any American detained by the court.
The first Trump administration reinforced these protections in June 2020 by sanctioning ICC officials over their investigations into alleged U.S. actions in Afghanistan and Israeli actions against Palestinians. The Biden administration lifted those sanctions in April 2021.
The Obama and Biden administrations repeatedly took steps to convey implicit U.S. endorsement of the ICC. They dispatched observers to the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, referred global conflicts to the court, cooperated with its investigations and offered only mild objections when the court targeted Israel. President Biden even described the ICC’s indictment of Vladimir Putin as “justified.” These actions signaled to the court’s prosecutors and judges that they could pursue a close U.S. ally with impunity—and encouraged further overreach.
Secretary Rubio has put an end to these behind-the-scenes efforts to draw the United States into the ICC without Senate consent. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, he described the court’s evolution from a supposedly narrow backstop for the gravest crimes into an ambitious globalist enterprise that claims the power to drag U.S. soldiers, Border Patrol agents, law enforcement officers, and elected officials before foreign judges applying laws Americans never consented to.
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Rubio warned that this is not just overreach by the ICC; it is an existential threat to American self-government.
The court is planning more controversial prosecutions beyond the Netanyahu case. Activist groups and a former ICC prosecutor have urged ICC investigations of Trump administration deportations of criminal aliens and strikes against narco-terrorists, labeling them potential “crimes against humanity.” When U.S. senators raised concerns about these proposals, the ICC prosecutor’s office accused them of crimes.
This amounts to international lawfare backed by leftist NGOs, globalist elites, and governments hostile to the United States.
Rubio’s response to this out-of-control international court is critical. The Trump administration will pressure ICC member states to withdraw from the court and stop funding it. Countries that host U.S. forces or receive American security assistance will face a clear choice: reject the ICC’s false claim of authority over Americans or risk losing that support. The United States also will target ICC judges and staff with visa revocations and expanded sanctions.
Congress must contribute as well. New legislation building on the American Service-Members’ Protection Act—including mandatory sanctions on ICC officials who target Americans or our allies and conditioning foreign aid on rejection of the court’s jurisdiction—would send a clear message about the court’s illegitimacy.
The ICC’s politicized targeting of Israel was a warning shot. Its plans to target Americans represent the real threat. By dismantling this illegitimate court’s ability to operate against the United States and its allies, the Trump administration is restoring the fundamental principle that no foreign tribunal—and no globalist bureaucracy—has authority over the American people or those who defend them.
This is America First in action. The ICC’s days of pretending to sit in judgment over sovereign nations are numbered.
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