The order would deny visas and block access to the funds of ICC employees and their family members who assist in probes related to US citizens and American allies. It comes in response to the court’s issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the nation’s former defense minister over the military campaign in Gaza.
The White House said in a statement the court drew “a shameful moral equivalency” between Israel’s leaders and Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US, which launched the deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the fighting. It also said the ICC has “broad, unaccountable powers that pose a significant threat to United States sovereignty and our constitutional protections.”Trump and his allies have long blasted the ICC as a symbol of the type of internationalism they decry and argue it improperly interferes in American affairs. The US has never been a party to the court, which was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocides and other atrocities that otherwise have gone uncharged. Trump in 2020 imposed sanctions on an ICC prosecutor and one of her aides for investigating alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan.
Former President Joe Biden in 2021 revoked Trump’s order approving sanctions on ICC officials. The administrations of Biden and former President Barack Obama, both Democrats, cooperated with the court on some cases.
Senate Democrats last week blocked a Republican-led bill that would have sanctioned the ICC for pursuing Israeli leaders. Trump signed the order during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
Trump has signaled full-throated support for Israel’s government. He even proposed that the US take control of the Gaza Strip after the conclusion of the war against Hamas, an idea that drew condemnation from world leaders who said it amounted to ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
