By Steve Holland and Simon Lewis
CAMP DAVID, Maryland, July 31 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that a U.S. campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court was intended to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others from prosecution, not himself.
Trump made the comment after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a cabinet meeting at Camp David that five countries had announced plans to quit the court since the United States launched a campaign earlier this month against what it says is a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
“There’s no information that they’re after me,” Trump said.
“It could happen, but just so you know … he (Rubio) is not trying to defend me. He’s trying to defend Bibi and various other people,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “But there are many people that shouldn’t be looked at that way. But there is no indication that I’m one of them at this moment.”
Rubio responded that the people in biggest danger were U.S. service members, who he said could face prosecution years later over their actions in war.
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 of the court.
However, the ICC statute also gives the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.
Trump’s opposition toward 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.
Rubio earlier this month denounced the court based in The Hague, citing calls from activists for the ICC to investigate U.S. personnel over actions like the deportation of migrants or U.S. strikes on boats that officials say are carrying narcotics.
The Trump administration has said it would lobby other countries to leave the court and use travel bans and further sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations to try to undermine the court, which is being opposed in the courts by ICC judges and U.S. advocacy groups which accuse the administration of violating their free speech rights.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Simon Lewis; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Howard Goller)
