The U.S. Department of State announced on July 13 an effort to “dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court [ICC] to U.S. sovereignty,” according to a press release.
This effort “will feature a whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty.”
Among other actions, the United States will pressure foreign governments to reject the ICC’s authority, impose sanctions on the ICC, and issue travel bans on ICC officials.
ICC Abuses
In an op-ed published July 13 in The Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the ICC’s abuses against the United States, including investigating U.S. troops for “war crimes,” criticizing U.S. immigration and foreign policies, and even threatening to arrest U.S. senators for criticizing the court.
Rubio continued:
The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation. Our decision and our people would be at the mercy of the ICC and its collaborators in the “international community.” To accept the ICC is to surrender control of our national destiny.
The Department of State’s announcement follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in February 2025 that imposed sanctions on the ICC.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Treaty that established the ICC, but he refused to submit it to the U.S. Senate for ratification because it had “significant flaws,” particularly its threat to American sovereignty. The United States never joined the ICC — and rightly so.
Major Globalist Power Grab
The ICC’s threat to U.S. sovereignty mirrors some of the grievances the Founding Fathers included in the Declaration of Independence. In it, they accused King George III of “subject[ing] us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation,” “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury,” and “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
As The New American has repeatedly reported (here, here, here, here, here, and here, for example), the ICC constitutes a major globalist power grab, and severely threatens American sovereignty. The court serves as a globalist tribunal for the United Nations, and even claims authority to prosecute Americans. The Trump administration is correct to push back hard.
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