Donald Trump reportedly preparing sanctions against International Criminal Court

Donald Trump is reportedly preparing sanctions against the International Criminal Court after the global tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sweeping sanctions could prohibit the court from carrying out transactions in dollars, cutting it off from the global financial system and drastically undermining its work, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for the court, which prosecutes war crimes and genocide worldwide. U.S. officials want the court to drop its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as well as a past probe into American troops in Afghanistan.

American officials told the WSJ the move could be finalised as soon as this week, during or just after the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which Netanyahu is expected to attend.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Israeli premier in 2024 over alleged war crimes. President Trump has said Netanyahu will not be arrested if he visits the United States, which is not a member of the ICC.

Sanctions against the court have already been drawn up, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, although the exact timing of an announcement remained unclear.

According to Israeli media, Netanyahu is still expected to fly in for the UN General Assembly later this week, but has cut his visit short and plans to leave immediately after delivering a speech.

The prime minister will fly to New York on the day of his address on Thursday, missing a planned diplomatic visit to Texas, according to i24News. It was unclear whether he would still meet with secretary of state Marco Rubio, the outlet reported.

Rubio in July announced a campaign to isolate the court, calling on other countries to withdraw from the tribunal. Washington has imposed sanctions on some ICC judges and prosecutors already but has held off from sanctioning the court itself.

Last year, Trump accused the court of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

An executive order issued at the time put visa and financial sanctions on people working on ICC probes of US citizens or allies.

Any entity-wide sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury would prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from providing funds, goods, or services to the court without a license from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Banks often over-comply with such U.S. sanctions because they depend on access to the American financial system.

Among the court’s operations that could be affected by sanctions against the entire organization are the purchasing of IT services and insurance, the hiring of investigators and conducting everyday financial transactions, such as paying dozens of American employees, the ICC’s registrar and president have warned.

Trump’s opposition to the court goes back to his first term. It surfaced again with a plan to penalize ICC officials, an idea developed in November 2024 when Trump was reelected and the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself. The United States has never been a member.