Secretary of State Marco Rubio barred all U.S. dealings with the International Criminal Court and vowed to dismantle it if threats against Americans continue, drawing sharp Democratic pushback.
In a Washington announcement Friday, Rubio said the United States is cutting off every transaction with the court he labeled rogue and fake. He told allies that rely on American troops for their own defense to help rein the body in, or watch Washington dismantle it piece by piece.
The New York Post reported Rubio’s video statement laid out a clear line. The court has no power over American citizens, service members, or political leaders, he said, because the United States never joined it.
Rubio put the stakes in plain terms.
"For decades now, both Republicans and Democrats have rejected the idea that the International Criminal Court has any power to prosecute American citizens, to prosecute military servicemembers, or political leaders because America never joined the court."
He added the country does not need the court and does not want it. Globalist experts an ocean away, he said, want the ICC to prosecute Americans defending the nation, Border Patrol agents protecting the border, and elected leaders handling national security.
The secretary tied the move directly to President Trump’s refusal to let foreign judges target U.S. personnel.
"They want more power, and they want it at the expense of our sovereignty as a nation. And President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans."
Rubio’s message left no ambiguity about what comes next if the threats continue.
"Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC. And we expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in this rogue court. If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, piece by piece, until Americans are threatened no longer."
The United States refused to sign the 2002 Rome Statute that created the court. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and most European nations did sign on. Rubio reminded those partners that American service members finance much of their security.
Days earlier, on Wednesday in Athens, Rubio had already called on Western nations to join the United States in the unapologetic pursuit of national power over global bureaucratic bodies. Friday’s sanctions package turned that speech into policy.
The Washington Free Beacon reported the administration sanctioned four senior ICC figures for pursuing cases against U.S. and Israeli officials without consent: Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, French judge Nicolas Guillou, Fijian deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, and Senegalese deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang.
Prost authorized an ICC investigation into the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Guillou approved arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and another Israeli official. Americans are now barred from any transactions with the sanctioned individuals, and their U.S. property is blocked.
Rubio described the court in blunt national-security language.
"The Court is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel."
He added that U.S. policy remains to take whatever actions are necessary to protect American troops, sovereignty, and allies from the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions.
Breitbart reported the measures include a six-month wind-down period for related business and aim to cut the court off from U.S.-based financial services, technology, and dollars. Rubio said the ban would cripple the court’s ability to operate against the United States.
The confrontation did not start Friday. In 2020, ICC investigators opened an inquiry into American troops allegedly committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sanctioned two prosecutors tied to that probe. The Biden administration later reversed those sanctions.
President Trump first sanctioned then-prosecutor Karim Khan in February 2025 after Khan threatened to jail Netanyahu over alleged war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. Beginning in June 2025, the administration reimposed sanctions on more than half a dozen ICC officials in a bid to force the tribunal to drop the Afghanistan investigation.
A Trump administration official told Reuters in December of concerns that the ICC could eventually pursue prosecutions of the 47th president, cabinet members, or other U.S. officials after a new administration takes office in January 2029. Friday’s broader transaction ban closes that door harder.
ICC deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, herself among the newly sanctioned officials, told Reuters the U.S. sanctions must be condemned. She said they are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work of an independent judicial institution. Khan insisted the court’s investigations and prosecutions will continue across all its situations.
The court itself called the move an assault on the rule of law and on the foundations of the international legal order, claiming it strikes at the principle that no one stands above the law. Rights groups and allies including Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom denounced the sanctions and pledged continued support for the tribunal.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the decision unfortunate and short-sighted. In a post on X she argued the administration was isolating the United States and making it harder to bring perpetrators of atrocities to justice for victims in places like Ukraine and Darfur, rather than focusing on lowering prices for Americans.
Earlier the same Friday, ex-ICC judge Navanethem Pillay received the Nobel Peace Prize for ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted. The timing put the court’s self-image and Washington’s rejection of its reach on the same news cycle.
Rubio’s demand puts ICC member states in a bind they helped create. Many of those governments signed the Rome Statute, then spent years relying on American military power while the court eyed U.S. personnel. Now the secretary of state is telling them to restrain the institution they joined or accept that Washington will keep dismantling its capacity to operate.
The pattern is consistent across administrations that take sovereignty seriously. Pompeo sanctioned prosecutors over Afghanistan. Trump sanctioned Khan over the Netanyahu warrants and reimposed broader penalties in 2025. Rubio’s full transaction ban and dismantlement vow raise the cost further. Democrats who spent years treating the ICC as a legitimate check on American power now call the defense of U.S. jurisdiction isolationist.
American troops, Border Patrol agents, and elected officials are not subject to a court the United States never joined. Rubio made that the official position again, with financial teeth and a public warning to every ally that still pretends otherwise.
Foreign judges do not get a veto over American self-defense. Friday’s sanctions simply made the bill come due.
