Trump Administration Hits International Criminal Court With Severe Sanctions
New York Times · LC · trust 68/100
U.S. officials announced new punishments aimed at the court, just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave its annual honor to a former court judge.
Listen · 2:09 min Share full article The move is an intensification in the Trump administration’s push to undermine the International Criminal Court. Credit... Pool photo by Remko De Waal By Edward Wong and Jeanna Smialek
Edward Wong reported from Athens, Greece, and Jeanna Smialek reported from Brussels. Both cover diplomacy and international news.
The new sanctions, unveiled by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department, would prohibit transactions with the court after a grace period of six months. Any companies doing business with the court afterward could be subject to punishment by the U.S. government. The threat of that could constrain the institution’s ability to carry out daily operations.
Although the State Department had been preparing the sanctions for months, Mr. Rubio’s announcement came just hours after a committee in Norway said it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay , a South African lawyer who served for nine years as a judge on the International Criminal Court and worked as the top human rights official at the United Nations.
The sanctions are an intensification of the Trump administration’s push to undermine the court. In February 2025, just weeks after taking office, President Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to come up with sanctions to impose on the court.
At the time, he said the court was trying to violate American sovereignty and undermine “the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel.”
Mr. Rubio said in a statement on Friday that Mr. Trump would never allow the court to prosecute Americans. “We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate,” he said.
Mr. Rubio announced in July that the United States planned to “systematically disable” the court, which Mr. Trump has long described as a threat to Americans.
The administration has imposed financial sanctions and visa bans on court judges and prosectors, but the measures announced on Friday are broader.
Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department for The Times.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
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