The Trump administration is launching an effort to dismantle what it calls the threat to US sovereignty by the UN-backed International Criminal Court, Reuters news agency reported, citing a State Department official.
President Donald Trump and other US officials, such as former President George W. Bush, have long said the ICC should not have the authority to investigate and prosecute Americans, particularly members of the military.
Reuters earlier this year found the Trump administration backed sanctions against ICC officials in part to head off any future attempts to hold him or his officials accountable for US military action overseas.
The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that a wide range of options is under consideration to target the ICC, including travel bans, visa revocations, increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, and diplomatic pressure on other nations to withdraw from the ICC, the official said.
The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself. The United States has never been a member of the court.
Trump’s hostility toward the court goes back to his first term.
It manifested again with a plan to punish ICC officials, an idea hatched in November 2024 when Trump was re-elected and the ICC indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Netanyahu remains an ICC fugitive after the court issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21, 2024, over “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed from October 2023 onward in besieged Gaza.
The arrest warrant legally obligates the 124 member states of the ICC to arrest Netanyahu if he enters their territory
