The Trump administration is preparing sweeping new sanctions against the International Criminal Court itself — not just individual officials this time, but the institution as a whole. It would build on an executive order signed in February 2025 that has already been used to sanction more than a dozen ICC judges and prosecutors, and on the decision in August to add the court's own president, Tomoko Akane, to the list. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the goal is to "systematically dismantle the ICC." (NBC News; Al Jazeera)
We want to make an argument that has almost nothing to do with what you think about the ICC. You can believe the court overreached — the administration's stated grievance is that it issued arrest warrants against Israeli officials and pursues people from countries that never joined it — and still recognize that reaching for the sanctions weapon here is a strategic mistake that costs America far more than it gains. Because sanctions aren't free. Every time we swing that ax, it gets a little duller — and the thing it's chipping away at is one of our greatest national assets: the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
Sanctions Are a Real Weapon—Which Is Exactly Why You Don't Waste Them
Let's be clear: economic sanctions are one of the most powerful tools America has. Used against genuine adversaries and genuine threats, they can change behavior without firing a shot. We're not pacifists about this. But a weapon that powerful only works because of something most people never think about: almost all of it runs through the dollar.
The reason U.S. sanctions bite is that the dollar sits at the center of the global financial system. World trade is priced in dollars, cross-border payments clear through dollar networks, and central banks park their savings in dollars and U.S. Treasuries. When Washington says a bank or a person is cut off from that system, it's a big deal because there's no easy way around it. That network is the ax. But here's the catch that Washington keeps forgetting: the more often, and the more carelessly, you swing it, the more the rest of the world starts looking for a way to never be on the wrong end of it again.
The Part That Hits Your Wallet
This is not abstract. Dollar dominance is worth real money to ordinary Americans, and here's the chain of cause and effect:
Because the world needs dollars and trusts U.S. Treasuries, there is enormous, constant demand to lend money to the United States. That steady demand for our debt holds our interest rates down. Economists call it an "exorbitant privilege" — the reserve-currency issuer gets to borrow more cheaply than anyone else on earth. Lower rates on the national debt, yes, but it flows downhill: it helps set the baseline for mortgage rates, car loans, and business borrowing here at home.
Now flip it around. If foreign governments and investors slowly decide the dollar is too risky to depend on — because it might get weaponized against them over a political dispute — they hold fewer dollars and buy fewer Treasuries. Less demand for our debt means higher interest rates to attract buyers. In other words: the same behavior that's supposed to project American strength abroad quietly raises the cost of your mortgage at home. That's about as counterproductive as economic policy gets.
This Isn't Hypothetical—It's Already Happening
The drift is measurable. The dollar's share of global foreign-exchange reserves has slipped to roughly 58% — a two-decade low. After the West froze nearly $300 billion of Russia's reserves and cut its banks out of the system in 2022, governments that never expected to be targets took note, and the search for alternatives accelerated. Multiple studies now find a direct link: the heavier the use of financial sanctions, the faster the erosion of the dollar's reserve share. (U.S. News / Investing; Syracuse University / "Bucking the Buck")
No, the dollar is not going to be dethroned tomorrow — it's resilient, and there's no obvious replacement. But dominance like this doesn't collapse in a day; it erodes at the margins, one unnecessary provocation at a time, until one day you look up and the privilege is smaller than it used to be. Networks are powerful precisely because everyone uses them — and they unravel the same way, as each new holdout gives the next one a reason to leave.
So What Is This Actually For?
Here's where we'll be blunt. When you use your most powerful economic weapon, there should be a clear, serious national interest on the other side of the ledger. Sanctioning a foreign bank that finances terrorism? Clear. Sanctioning an adversary building a weapon that threatens us? Clear. Sanctioning the judges and staff of an international court — and now the court itself — over a legal dispute involving an ally?
We struggle to find the American national interest in that column. What we see instead is a familiar pattern: a President with a long-running grievance against international institutions and courts, reaching for the biggest hammer available to punish one he doesn't like. That may feel satisfying. It may even score political points. But it burns our most valuable financial leverage on a fight that doesn't make a single American safer or richer — and it hands every rival on earth another reason to build a world that routes around us.
The Common-Sense Line
This is exactly the kind of issue where we part ways with the reflexive instincts of both parties. We're not against sanctions — we're against wasting them. Save the ax for real adversaries and real threats, where the payoff justifies the cost. Don't swing it at courts and institutions to settle scores, because the bill for that comes due slowly, in a weaker dollar, higher interest rates, and less leverage exactly when we'll need it most. Strength isn't using every weapon you have at every target you dislike. Strength is discipline — knowing that the most powerful tool in the drawer stays powerful only if you don't dull it on things that don't matter.
America's financial network is a genuine superpower. Let's stop treating it like something we can spend for free.
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Sources
• U.S. sanctions ICC president and senior trial lawyer; Rubio vows to "dismantle" the court — NBC News
• Administration readies sweeping sanctions against the ICC as an institution — Al Jazeera
• De-dollarization and the dollar's ~58% reserve share — U.S. News / Investing
• Research linking U.S. financial sanctions to anti-dollar policies ("Bucking the Buck") — Syracuse University