Of course Trump is threatening the International Criminal Court. Even though the US has never recognized the authority of the ICC, it is the one international organization with some power to force accountability of the Trump administration for war crimes and violations of international law.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/marco-rubio-dismantle-international-criminal-court
@petergleick The only reason I can see for objecting to the ICC is that you have broken International law or intend to knowingly break International law and wish to evade the consequences of such acts, so US administration which is it?
Jul 14, 2026, 5:11 PMThe ICC hasn't been recognized by USA, Russia, China or India. There are powerful reasons for that. All of them have never stopped violating basic human rights, for starters. And when you have enough power to not have fear of your neighbors doing atrocities to you, that kind of thing serves only to rein on your own atrocities.
So the ICC has acted as a tool for medium and small countries to look for justice against other medium and small countries that recognize it, and as a diplomatic tool against the big ones.
Of course, if the real values of US government were the pursuit of peace and human rights everywhere, the US would have ever been the most prominent member. But the US have always had other priorities. And the current administration's priorities require massive violations of human rights and other countries sovereignty, so much they are against the WHO and the UN, too.
Maduro's kidnapping operation or the unprovoked attack on Iran are clear examples of things the US could not do if they were to respect international law.
But they are a rogue state, and a particularly reckless to boot, so they do it anyway.
Seeing Trump complaining of lack of help from US allies on Iran is ironic, sad and enraging at the same time. He doesn't have a clue of how important those international laws are for the rest of us. And clearly doesn't care. Well, if he doesn't care about what we think, he shouldn't expect us to care about what he is randomly foaming about at any time.
@petergleick
I actually think one thing the next US president could do to try to improve our standing on the world is sign on to the ICC.