US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of threatening American sovereignty and “waging a war” against the country.
“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'”.
He further said the court had “become the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law – empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens at will”.
Rubio described the court as “far more radical and extreme” than it had initially promised to be, saying it was “staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited”.
“The danger of this global court has only continued to grow.”
“The American people never agreed to any of this,” he said. “And they never will.”
Rubio’s remarks come after the Trump administration launched an effort to dismantle what it describes as the threat posed by the ICC to US sovereignty, according to a State Department official.
President Donald Trump and other US officials, such as former President George W. Bush, have long said the ICC should not have the authority to investigate and prosecute Americans, particularly members of the military.
Reuters earlier this year found the Trump administration backed sanctions against ICC officials in part to head off any future attempts to hold him or his officials accountable for US military action overseas.
The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a wide range of options is under consideration to target the ICC, including travel bans, visa revocations, increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organisations, and diplomatic pressure on other nations to withdraw from the ICC.
The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself. The US has never been a member of the court.
Trump’s hostility toward the court goes back to his first term. It manifested again with a plan to punish ICC officials, an idea hatched in November 2024 when Trump was re-elected and the ICC issued an arrest warrant for his ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Last month, three International Criminal Court judges sued Trump and his administration over sanctions imposed on them last year, arguing the measures were unlawful.