Trump Weighs ICC Sanctions on the Entire Court

The Trump administration is preparing ICC sanctions against the International Criminal Court itself, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in a move that would forbid most transactions with the Hague-based court after a grace period of six to seven months. Reuters, which carried the Journal's account, said it could not immediately verify the documents the newspaper cited.

If imposed, the measures would be the most sweeping step yet in an 18-month campaign of ICC sanctions against the court. Washington has already placed nine of the court's 18 judges, both deputy prosecutors, its former chief prosecutor and one staff member on sanctions lists, cutting them off from dealings with US citizens and much of the global financial system.

The new step would go further than any previous ICC sanctions by targeting the institution as a whole rather than individual officials. Details of how the court would wind down US-linked transactions during the grace period have not been made public, and the administration has issued no formal announcement so far.

An 18-month pressure campaign

The escalation began in the opening weeks of the president's second term. On February 6, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14203, creating the legal basis for the ICC sanctions drive, according to reporting on the order. In the months that followed, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added one official after another to its Specially Designated Nationals list.

The list grew to include court president Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, both designated on August 18 over the court's case involving Israeli leaders. A general license gave banks and firms until September 17 to wind down dealings with the two, UN News reported. By late summer, nine judges, both deputy prosecutors, former prosecutor Karim Khan and one staff member faced restrictions.

The net widened beyond the court's own staff. In September, the State Department sanctioned three Palestinian human rights groups, al-Haq, the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, over their role in seeking international accountability for alleged war crimes in Gaza, making the groups targets of the widening ICC sanctions campaign. Earlier, Washington also sanctioned UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, the expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories.

Why the court is in Washington's sights

The administration's dispute with the court rests on two investigations. In November 2024, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes during the war against Hamas in Gaza. The United States, which signed the treaty that created the court in 2000 but never ratified it, has described those warrants as politically motivated overreach.

The second flashpoint is older. During the president's first term, the court authorized an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, including by US forces, prompting sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other staff. President Joe Biden lifted those measures in 2021, calling them neither effective nor appropriate.

Current officials have framed the fight in blunter terms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to widen the ICC sanctions and use every available tool to dismantle the court's threat to American sovereignty, brick by brick if necessary. On September 15, the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts held a hearing titled The International Criminal Court's Threat to the Sovereignty of the United States and Its Allies. And according to a Reuters report from last December, Washington has demanded that the court drop its charges against the Israeli leaders, end the Afghanistan probe and change its founding statute to rule out any prosecution of Trump and his top officials.

The court pushes back

The court has answered each round of sanctions with defiance. In a statement, it called the American measures a flagrant attack on the independence of an impartial judicial institution operating under the mandate given by its member states. It warned that the international legal order itself is placed at risk when judges are threatened for applying the law.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is seriously concerned about the latest action and the ongoing designations of court employees, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. The United Nations, which is separate from the court, considers it a key pillar of international criminal justice.

American civil society has also entered the fight. US nonprofits sued the administration over the ICC sanctions, arguing they chill lawful advocacy. Omar Shakir of the group DAWN told CNN the campaign goes beyond the court itself and reaches the constitutional rights of Americans to advocate for justice.

What comes next

The grace period built into the reported ICC sanctions plan suggests the administration is trying to avoid turmoil in the financial system while still delivering a blow. For six to seven months, the court would be expected to untangle any transactions that touch the American financial system before the full ban takes effect.

The practical stakes are enormous. The court, established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, prosecutes genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression when member states give it jurisdiction. Cutting it off from the dollar system could disrupt everything from staff salaries to witness protection.

Whether the administration follows through remains an open question. For now, the court says it will continue its work with the backing of its member states, and the UN says the secretary-general respects that work. Follow the site's human-rights coverage, plus politics and war reporting, for the latest as this story develops.