‘America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it,’ Marco Rubio said.
By Catholics for Catholics
The Trump administration inflicted sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, placing Washington on an international fracas with European allies.
The court countered by denouncing the move as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order,” and called on its 125 member states to take action to defend it, according to a story by the Epoch Times.
The State Department imposed sanctions saying it “will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”
“For decades, Republicans and Democrats alike rejected the idea that the International Criminal Court had the power to prosecute American citizens, military service members, or political leaders,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it.”
Nazhat Shameem Khan, the ICC’s deputy prosecutor , condemned the U.S. sanctions.
“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” Khan said. “Our work will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”
.@SecRubio announces the Trump administration is sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) https://t.co/nVCeu2a66h
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 9, 2026
By contrast, the United States has disputed ICC efforts to probe or prosecute American military and intelligence officers for actions in Afghanistan or other prior campaigns.
Always, Washington has consistently maintained that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over citizens of countries that have not ratified the Rome Statute.
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in his statement.
“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” Khan said. “Our work will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”
In February 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against the ICC over alleged bias against Israel and the United States.
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