Donald Trump has ordered travel and economic sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ideally — and international bodies never reflect the ideals of the do-gooders who push them on us — the ICC was supposed to punish the wicked who start unprovoked wars, commit atrocities, and commit crimes against humanity like genocide and using rape as a weapon of war. It was set up to deliver justice to member states whose legal systems would prevent the guilty from being judged.
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Instead, the ICC has become the right hand of sanctimonious antisemites and anti-Americans who use the ICC to punish those like Israel and the U.S., neither of whom are signatories to the treaty authorizing the ICC.
The Trump order accuses the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and of exceeding its authority by issuing “baseless arrest warrants” against Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
“The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel,” the order continued and added that the ICC had set a “dangerous precedent” with its actions against both countries.
The ICC condemned the sanctions.
“The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it,” it said on Friday.
That’s just it. No one has ever received “justice” from the ICC. No one has ever been punished by the ICC for any crimes, including genocide. Their high-profile “arrested warrants” are strictly for show. If a real war criminal like Syria’s Bashar Assad walked into The Hague, who would arrest him?
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“The court’s work is essential in the fight against impunity,” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a post on X. The fight against “impunity” can start in the ICC’s offices.
Like Israel, the U.S. is not among the court’s 124 members and has long harbored suspicions that a “Global Court” of unelected judges could arbitrarily prosecute U.S. officials. A 2002 law authorizes the Pentagon to liberate any American or U.S. ally held by the court. In 2020, Trump sanctioned chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, over her decision to open an inquiry into war crimes committed by all sides, including the U.S., in Afghanistan.
However, those sanctions were lifted under President Joe Biden, and the U.S. began to tepidly cooperate with the tribunal — especially after Khan in 2023 charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with war crimes in Ukraine.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Grahan was once a supporter of the ICC, believing that cooperating with it might work to the U.S.’s advantage.
He has since come to oppose the organization.
“This is a rogue court. This is a kangaroo court,” Graham said in an interview in December. “There are places where the court makes perfect sense. Russia is a failed state. People fall out of windows. But I never in my wildest dreams imagined they would go after Israel, which has one of the most independent legal systems on the planet.”
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“The legal theory they’re using against Israel has no limits and we’re next,” he added.
Trump delivered a pre-emptive strike against the court, knowing he has a bullseye on his back. The sanction executive order was issued shortly after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where the two men no doubt discussed what was to be done with the ICC.
Looks like there won’t be any expensive shopping trips to New York for court members anytime soon.
