Brick by brick.
The US Secretary of State has vowed to take apart the International Criminal Court — the permanent heir to Nuremberg, and the only standing body built to try leaders for genocide and war crimes. An allied prime minister facing that court's arrest warrant calls it “a very positive development.”
This is not a fight over one arrest warrant. It is the deliberate dismantling of the institution created so that “I was following orders” and “I am a sovereign” would never again be a defense to mass atrocity. Whatever one thinks of the ICC's flaws, tearing it down doesn't reform it — it removes the referee.
Rubio announces a whole-of-government campaign to dismantle the ICC — “brick by brick”
US Department of State (Secretary Marco Rubio) · Public policy announcement · July 13–14, 2026
The US Secretary of State has openly committed the government to taking apart the International Criminal Court, accusing it of 'waging war' on US and Israeli sovereignty.
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In July 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a “whole-of-government” campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court, vowing to take it apart “brick by brick” and accusing it of “waging war” on American and Israeli sovereignty. It followed more than a year of US sanctions on ICC judges, deputy prosecutors, and Palestinian human-rights groups — sanctions imposed explicitly in response to the court's arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu, for his part, says Rubio has assured him repeatedly that Washington will “act forcefully” against the court, calling it a “positive development” the world should “echo.” This page grades the campaign, the sanctions, and the lawsuit the ICC judges have now filed against the US — and it frames the stakes through the court's origin: the ICC is the permanent successor to Nuremberg, and there is no second one waiting behind it.
The record, claim by claim
The US Secretary of State launched a campaign to dismantle the ICC.
FACTOn July 13–14, 2026, Marco Rubio announced a 'whole-of-government' effort to take apart the International Criminal Court, saying the US would dismantle it 'brick by brick' if necessary and accusing it of 'waging a war against our country… with the force of so-called international law.' The toolkit he described: sanctions, visa bans, pressure on allies to quit the court, and threats to cut security assistance to states that support it.
“Brick by brick.”
The US has sanctioned ICC judges and prosecutors, explicitly over the Israel warrants.
FACTBeginning in early 2025 (Executive Order 14203), the US imposed successive rounds of sanctions on ICC officials — including judges and deputy prosecutors — and on Palestinian human-rights NGOs (Al-Haq, Al Mezan, PCHR), tied directly to the court's investigation and arrest warrants targeting Israeli and US nationals. The State Department's own releases name the officials and the rationale.
ICC judges have sued the United States over the sanctions.
FACTIn 2026, sitting ICC judges filed suit challenging the US sanctions — reported as the first time sitting judges of the court have taken the United States to court. It's a measure of how far the confrontation has escalated: the people the sanctions target are now litigants against Washington.
Netanyahu says Rubio assured him, repeatedly, that the US will act forcefully against the ICC.
FACTThis is Netanyahu's own on-record account, and the repetition is the point: he has said Rubio 'reiterated' and 'once again reaffirmed' Washington's intent to 'act forcefully'/'firmly' against the court, calling it 'a very positive development' that 'it is important that we echo… around the world.' Graded FACT as to what Netanyahu said. Precision: the sourced wording is 'act forcefully against' — the viral 'promised to destroy it' phrasing is a paraphrase we do not put in quotation marks.
“Once again he reaffirmed to me the United States' intention to act forcefully against the International Criminal Court.”
- Times of Israel; Middle East Eye; Algemeiner — Netanyahu on his Rubio conversations re: the ICC (Jul 2026)
Dismantling the ICC would leave no permanent court able to try individuals for atrocity crimes.
PROBABLY TRUEThe ICC is the permanent successor to the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals — created by the Rome Statute (in force 2002) to be the standing court Nuremberg's architects envisioned, with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression. Graded PROBABLY TRUE because it is an analytical claim, but a well-founded one: the International Court of Justice hears only state-vs-state disputes (no individuals, no criminal convictions); ad-hoc tribunals require a UN Security Council vote that any permanent member — including the US — can veto; and universal-jurisdiction national courts are patchy and politically fragile. Remove the ICC and no permanent body remains that can put an individual leader on trial for atrocity crimes.
Reform is one thing. Demolition is another.
- The critique of the ICC is real — and stated. The US never ratified the Rome Statute; whether the court can reach nationals of non-member states is a genuine legal dispute, and Israel and the US argue the warrants are illegitimate overreach. We put that argument on the page. But “dismantle it brick by brick” is not a reform proposal — it is demolition, and the two shouldn't be blurred.
- “Act forcefully against” ≠ “promised to destroy.” The load-bearing quote is Netanyahu's own — Rubio “reaffirmed” the intent to act forcefully against the court, more than once. That is damning on its own. We don't need, and don't use, the sharper social-media gloss.
- There is no bench behind this court. The strongest, most sobering fact here isn't about Netanyahu at all: it's that if the permanent atrocity court is dismantled, the world doesn't fall back to a spare one. It falls back to nothing standing.
Killing the referee
Nuremberg's lasting achievement was a principle: that heads of state and their subordinates can be tried for atrocity, and that neither orders from above nor sovereignty from below is a shield. The ICC is the permanent institution built to carry that principle forward. Dismantling it is not a technical foreign-policy move — it is the removal of the one standing check on the powerful that this whole site exists to track. That is why this piece touches so many hubs at once: the same actors documented elsewhere for extrajudicial killing, the deaths of witnesses and journalists, and self-dealing at the top are, in the same window, going after the only court that could ever hold them to account. It belongs in the Israeli Influence hub because the trigger was the Netanyahu warrants — but the stakes are everyone's.
Questions worth taking seriously
Isn’t the ICC biased or illegitimate, as the US and Israel argue?
The US never joined the court, and whether it can reach nationals of non-member states is a real legal dispute — we state that. But the fix for a flawed court is reform or non-participation, not demolishing the only permanent atrocity tribunal. “It's biased” is an argument about the court; “dismantle it brick by brick” is an argument against accountability itself.
Did Rubio literally promise Netanyahu he’d “destroy” the ICC?
The word “destroy” comes from a viral social-media post. What's sourced is Netanyahu's own account that Rubio repeatedly “reaffirmed” Washington's intent to “act forcefully against” the court — plus Rubio's own public vow to dismantle it “brick by brick.” We use the sourced wording, not the gloss.
If the ICC is gone, what actually holds a government accountable?
Very little, at the individual level. The International Court of Justice only rules on disputes between states — no criminal convictions. New ad-hoc tribunals need UN Security Council approval, which the US, Russia, or China can veto. National courts using “universal jurisdiction” are rare and politically fragile. Remove the ICC and no permanent court remains that can try a leader for genocide or war crimes.
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The record
- Time — Trump administration vows to dismantle the International Criminal Court (Jul 14, 2026)
- Middle East Eye — Rubio says US will dismantle ICC ‘brick by brick’
- US State Department — ICC Sanctions (official page)
- The Hill — Rubio sanctions ICC judges over Israel prosecutions
- JURIST — US escalates campaign against the ICC (2026)
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum — International criminal justice since Nuremberg
- The Conversation — how the ICJ and ICC differ
- Times of Israel; Algemeiner — Netanyahu's on-record remarks on his Rubio conversations re: the ICC (Jul 2026)