Washington pressures ICC to halt anti-Israel probes and prevent hostile global actors weaponizing international justice.
The Trump administration has launched a forceful diplomatic and legal offensive against the International Criminal Court, demanding that the tribunal revise its founding charter to ensure it cannot target the U.S. president, senior American officials, or Israel’s elected leadership. According to a Reuters report, Washington has warned that failure to comply could trigger a dramatic expansion of sanctions—including measures directly against the ICC as an institution.
A senior U.S. official revealed that Washington has formally urged the ICC to terminate its politically motivated investigations of Israeli leaders related to the Gaza war and to shut down its long-running Afghanistan probe involving American troops. If the court refuses, the administration is prepared to escalate pressure by sanctioning additional ICC personnel and, potentially, the court itself—an unprecedented step reflecting mounting bipartisan frustration with the tribunal’s selective, anti-Israel and anti-American legal activism.
Last year, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas terror chief Mohammed Deif. The equivalence drawn between Israel’s democratically accountable leadership and a genocidal Hamas commander was widely condemned in Jerusalem and throughout the U.S. Congress as a disgraceful moral inversion engineered by pro-Palestinian and Arab-aligned legal networks operating through the court.
Washington’s fear, the official said, is that after President Trump’s term ends in 2029, the ICC—encouraged by hostile nations—could attempt to retroactively investigate American commanders or political leaders.
“There is growing concern… that in 2029 the ICC will turn its attention to the president, to the vice president, to the secretary of war and others,” the official warned, making clear the administration will not permit such proceedings.
Although the U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute, it has communicated its demands to allied member states and directly to ICC leadership. Any amendment to the treaty would require approval from at least two-thirds of the States Parties—though the administration appears determined to marshal diplomatic leverage to block what it views as weaponized lawfare targeting Israel and the United States while ignoring atrocities committed by Iran-backed terror groups and rogue regimes.
Earlier this year, Washington sanctioned nine ICC personnel but avoided measures that would hobble the court’s infrastructure. That restraint may end. The administration is reportedly considering further action as concerns grow over the ICC’s expanding attempts to police U.S. counter-narcotics missions and its past scrutiny of American forces in Afghanistan.
Critics of the ICC argue that the tribunal has repeatedly indulged in ideologically driven pursuits, giving disproportionate attention to democracies like Israel while showing timidity toward Palestinian terror factions and abusive Arab regimes that openly commit war crimes.
The ICC, for its part, responded that treaty amendments are the responsibility of member states and declined to confirm whether Washington requested immunity provisions.
Any attempt to codify protections for specific officials would require broad international approval—yet Trump’s move signals a wider battle over the future of international justice:
Will global courts uphold impartial law, or will they continue serving as tools for anti-Israel, anti-American political agendas?
