Marco Rubio’s surprising campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court

The State Department also indicated that countries that rely on American security guarantees while declining to reject the ICC’s authority over U.S. personnel should expect increased scrutiny going forward.

By Gila Isaacson, JFeed

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that the Trump administration is launching a sweeping diplomatic campaign aimed at dismantling the International Criminal Court, framing the tribunal as a direct threat to American sovereignty and vowing to use every available tool to strip it of influence.

Rubio laid out the effort in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an accompanying video message, declaring that the campaign carries a simple message that sovereign states come before globalism and that the United States will “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, if necessary.”

In his video remarks, he went further, describing the tribunal as “a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited.”

According to a State Department release published Monday, the campaign will involve a whole-of-government effort to disable the ICC’s ability to operate or target American servicemembers and officials.

A State Department official told Reuters the diplomatic toolkit includes travel bans, visa revocations, and expanded sanctions against the court and affiliated organizations, along with direct outreach from Rubio, his deputy, and U.S. ambassadors urging allied nations to withdraw from the court altogether.

The State Department also indicated that countries that rely on American security guarantees while declining to reject the ICC’s authority over U.S. personnel should expect increased scrutiny going forward.

The move escalates a fight that has simmered since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza, an action the Trump administration treated as a turning point in its posture toward the court.

The dispute intensified further last month when three ICC judges filed a lawsuit in New York challenging sanctions the administration had already imposed on them, arguing the measures were unlawful.

The ICC, established in 2002 under the Rome Statute to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, has never been joined by the United States, and successive American administrations of both parties have long disputed its jurisdiction over U.S. citizens.

A 2002 law known as the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, passed with broad bipartisan support at the time, already grants the president authority to act on behalf of U.S. personnel detained or threatened with prosecution by the court.

For Israel, the announcement lands as a significant show of support from Washington at a moment when the Netanyahu government continues to face the ICC warrants stemming from the Gaza campaign and is likely to be read in Jerusalem as reinforcing the alliance’s shared posture toward the court’s authority over both nations’ officials and servicemembers.