US Sanctions ‘Rogue’ ICC, Banning Transactions to Cripple Operations

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The Trump administration issued new sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday banning transactions with the court to cripple its ability to operate against the United States.  The action comes hours after a former ICC judge was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a video posted on social media, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed out that both Republican and Democrat administrations have long rejected the idea that the ICC “has any power to prosecute American citizens.”

“America never joined the court. We don’t need that court and we don’t want it,” Rubio declared.

He said that court is increasingly targeting U.S. servicemembers, Border Patrol agents and political leaders.

“They want more power and they want it at the expense of the sovereignty of our nation,” Rubio said.

That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.

“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio stated.

Former ICC judge Navi Pillay, who oversaw a UN report that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”

The Trump administration strongly objected to the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the alleged war crimes.

President Trump last month ripped the ICC as an “out of control institution” during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and called upon other nations to resign from it immediately.

The president said he would never allow a U.S. citizen or member of the U.S. military to be subjected to an ICC investigation or “show trial,” and called the judicial body “an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us.”

“They’re an evil group of people,” Trump told the UN audience. “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution.”

Trump issued an Executive Order on February 6, 2025, authorizing sanctions on the ICC and its Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.

Rubio said that the administration deferred taking action against the ICC for over a year, but the court refused to take any “meaningful steps to address our concerns.”

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio warned, adding “we expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American servicemembers for their defense, to rein in the court.”

“If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, until Americans are threatened no longer,” he concluded.