The Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday a government outreach campaign to neutralize and dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC), which he described as a direct threat to the sovereignty of the United States.
The official announcement from the State Department describes the initiative as a coordinated response from the entire government to incapacitate the operational capacity of the court.
According to the official statement, the ICC represents "an intolerable threat to the sovereignty of the U.S." by claiming the authority to prosecute and even imprison military personnel and U.S. officials acting in defense of national interests.
Washington argues that no president since the ratification of the court has acknowledged its jurisdiction over United States citizens.
The measures outlined in the campaign include diplomatic calls from Rubio, the Under Secretary of State, and ambassadors to foreign governments urging them to withdraw from the ICC, revocation of visas and travel bans for tribunal staff, expansion of sanctions against the Court and related organizations, and increased scrutiny of countries receiving U.S. aid that do not reject the authority of the body.
The State Department also called on nations that, like the U.S., are not parties to the Rome Statute to coordinate joint diplomatic actions.
The note warns that "no diplomatic option will be ruled out" in this campaign.
In a video published on YouTube, Rubio framed the offensive in terms of historical sovereignty: “For 250 years, Americans have governed ourselves as a free and sovereign people. We choose our leaders, determine our own laws, and when accused of a crime, we submit to the judgment of a jury of our peers.”
The Secretary of State described the ICC as "a global court made up of unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim to have almost unlimited power" and warned that, if no action is taken, border agents, marines, and anti-terrorism prosecutors would be "at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away, with the constant risk of being prosecuted and even imprisoned for the alleged crime of defending their own country."
Rubio concluded his message with a direct warning: "This administration will not stand idly by while the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people. If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will show them the full meaning of American determination."
The campaign represents an escalation compared to the previous measures of the Trump administration.
In February 2025, the president had already signed Executive Order 14203, which imposed economic and visa sanctions on the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, two deputy prosecutors, and six judges of the court, invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Now, the strategy takes a qualitative leap: it no longer focuses on sanctioning individual officials, but instead aims to institutionally dismantle the organization through global diplomatic pressure.
The immediate background includes the arrest warrant issued by the ICC in November 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, a decision that Washington outright rejected.
The ICC has 124 member states obliged to execute its arrest warrants; the U.S. has not been one of them since the Bush administration formally withdrew its signature from the Rome Statute in May 2002.
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