The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, just hours after one of the court’s former judges, Navi Pillay, won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize — putting Washington on a collision course with European allies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move: “President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” he said in a statement. “That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”
The step goes further than previous U.S. sanctions on individual ICC prosecutors and judges. Friday’s move could punish companies that provide services to the court itself.
The designation places the court on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list under Executive Order 14203, blocking its property and prohibiting U.S. transactions with it. The Treasury issued same-day General Licenses 13 through 16 providing limited carve-outs, though banks and companies typically over-comply with such designations.
Washington has long opposed the court over arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and over a past ICC investigation into U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, which the court has since closed.
The court, founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has 125 member states, including every EU country and all NATO members except the United States and Turkey. It is based in the Netherlands, an EU and NATO member.
The ICC’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, condemned the sanctions, telling Reuters they “must be condemned” and are “intended to undermine the rule of law internationally.” She said the court’s work would continue across all its investigations and prosecutions.
Pillay, the South African jurist awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work in international criminal justice, served as a judge on the ICC’s Appeals Chamber from 2003 to 2008. In its citation, the Nobel committee said it sought to “issue a reminder” at a time when “judges and institutions of international law are under political attack.”
