Rubio to ICC: Hands Off the United States — Oh, And We're Shutting You Down

"Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of 'international law.'"  — Marco Rubio 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is going down. At least, it is if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has anything to do with it. 

America never agreed to a world tribunal that can override our own courts and the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/eAncjDreqg

— Department of State (@StateDept) July 13, 2026

"Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which U.S. soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents, and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America," Rubio wrote in an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. "But that is what the International Criminal Court now claims the power to do." 

If you're unfamiliar, the ICC, which is located in The Hague, Netherlands, was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute to handle the absolute worst crimes in the world, like genocide. It claims it can investigate people of any nation if it feels their own government won't, and the United States has never bought into this ridiculous idea that is simply a globalist slippery slope. 

"Both of our major political parties opposed the prospect of handing a distant global court the power to prosecute and jail our own citizens," Rubio writes. "President Clinton refused to submit the Rome Statute (the ICC’s founding charter) to the Senate for ratification due to his 'concerns about significant flaws in the Treaty.' Two years later, a bipartisan Senate supermajority passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, authorizing the president 'to use all means necessary'—including military force—to prevent the ICC from detaining or arresting Americans."

Even so, the ICC, which is backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity toward the U.S.," has turned its supposed purpose into a witch hunt against the United States, Israel, and other allies. Here's more from Rubio: 

In 2020 the ICC launched an investigation into what chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of Gambia described as 'war crimes by members of the United States armed forces' in Afghanistan, declaring that the U.S. government hadn’t prosecuted enough American soldiers to satisfy the court. In effect, Ms. Bensouda was anointing herself the final judge of U.S. military policy and the entire U.S. justice system. 

The Afghanistan investigation was only the opening move in the assault against American self-government. The ICC is backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity toward the U.S.

In the second Trump administration, these calls have continued to grow. Last year, major activist groups urged high-ranking international officials 'to take immediate and meaningful action' against the Trump administration’s deportations of violent criminals to El Salvador. Months later, a former ICC chief prosecutor declared that President Trump’s strikes against narcoterrorists amounted to 'a crime against humanity' and should be treated as such under international law — a line that was echoed by United Nations leaders, and major leftist nongovernmental organizations, Democratic Party officials and politicians. In March, the Washington-based Democracy for the Arab World Now urged the Iranian regime to request an ICC investigation of 'apparent war crimes' committed by American personnel.

U.S. efforts to push back against the ICC’s illegitimate interventions have been framed as a further reason for the ICC to target Americans. When 12 U.S. senators wrote to the ICC prosecutor about their concerns, the prosecutor’s office accused them of crimes. When Mr. Trump imposed sanctions against ICC personnel, a former head of Human Rights Watch said that 'all 125 ICC member states would have a legal duty to arrest him were he to show up.'

Rubio goes on to say that it will only get worse, and the Donald Trump administration is putting an end to it with this killer line: 

Perhaps more polite and compliant nations could make their peace with that arrangement. But this is America. Our forefathers fought a revolution against a foreign power 'transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.' Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of 'international law.'

Mic drop, as the kids say. 

But we're not just looking to tell the ICC to back off, Rubio said. We're going all in to dismantle it "brick by brick, if necessary." 

We're starting by launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message: "sovereign states over globalism." He added that, "Those who benefit from American security must not stand idly by while those who provide that security are targeted."  

And that's only the beginning, Rubio said. We'll use every tool at our disposal to take down the ICC with the help of every ally really to join our cause. 

Here's a video our bada** Secretary of State recorded about these latest moves from the Trump Administration. Enjoy!  

The International Criminal Court seeks to become the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law — empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens at will and existentially threaten American sovereignty.

We will teach the ICC the full meaning of American resolve. pic.twitter.com/2egHK1jA98

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 13, 2026

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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