US launches sweeping campaign against ICC over ‘threat to US sovereignty’
Trump administration vows to pressure global allies to withdraw from court, cut off financial support
The United States on Monday announced a sweeping campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC) that could include further sanctions and other measures, accusing it of posing “an intolerable threat to US sovereignty”.
The Trump administration said it would pressure other countries to withdraw from the court, marking a sharp escalation in the US effort to isolate the Hague-based institution and starve it of political and financial support.
“The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so-called international law,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video statement.
The State Department said in a statement that the campaign would “systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty”.
The US has previously targeted individual court officials it deems a threat to US interests, but the new “whole of government” campaign would pressure other nations “to withdraw from the ICC and cut off any financial support to the court,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
In February 2025, shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office, Washington slapped asset freezes and travel bans on several ICC officials over an arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.