The Government of Donald Trump has announced new sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) about five hours after the Nobel Peace committee awarded the prize to a former judge of that organization, the South African Navi Pillay. Washington has announced this through its Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, ensuring that Trump "will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans" and threatening to "dismantle" the international organization "brick by brick" if it does not "end its threats."
To date, the United States has imposed sanctions on 17 people related to the ICC, according to a statement from the State Department, a punishment that on Friday they decided to expand in order to prohibit the transactions of a court "that acts outside the rules, cutting off its resources and paralyzing its operational capacity."
The ICC reacted to Washington's sanctions by stating that "history will judge this moment." The punishment constitutes "an attack against the rule of law and against the very foundations of the international legal order, by questioning the fundamental principle that no one is above the law," according to a statement. The Hague-based body warned that "no one should be punished for serving the cause of justice" and urged its members to take "concrete measures" to ensure that the court can continue to operate, warning that "the court cannot stand alone."
This is the umpteenth attack by the United States against an institution to which it does not belong, but which has 125 partners (Spain, among them, since 2002) and the support of the European Union. From Brussels, the EU indicated in a statement that they are willing "to adopt all necessary measures so that the Court can carry out its work, both in the investigation and prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Trump, for his part, has not reacted directly to Pillay's award, but he has shared a publication from a user on his platform, Truth Social, who harshly criticizes the Norwegian committee's decision. "Pillay manifests a blatant hatred towards the US and Israel. Since his position, he has praised terrorists and rewarded Hamas. He carried out a fraudulent 'investigation' in which he claimed that Israel had committed genocide and demanded that judicial action be taken," indicates the user about an award that Trump has been pursuing for a long time and that he considers he deserves, as he has stated on many occasions.
Trump's wars
Against him, a considerable war record. Since returning to the White House promising to end wars, Trump has given orders to open fire on three continents. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) report, the United States has carried out 573 air and drone strikes in one year, with interventions in seven countries: Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela. The Republican, for his part, insists that no one has done more for world peace than him, ending between 8 and 10 wars, depending on the speech and the occasion.
One of his main allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has joined the criticism of the award to Pillay, the woman who chaired the UN commission of inquiry that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Netanyahu's office has described Pillay as "a fanatic who built her career on inventing and propagating blood libels against the only Jewish state."
It was a predictable reaction. Pillay collaborated with the ICC when the body requested arrest warrants in 2024 against Netanyahu and his then-Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. "Now the misguided members of the Nobel Committee honor the woman who propagated this demonization of the Jews and this travesty of justice," they noted.
The 85-year-old South African, with a PhD in Law from Harvard University and the first non-white woman on the High Court of South Africa, reacted with surprise to the award and joked about the possibility of sharing it with Trump. "I might," he said with a smile. It is a gesture that María Corina Machado already had with the American president last year, when she presented him at the White House with the gold medal that had been awarded to him in Oslo in December 2025. Trump accepted it without hesitation, ensuring that it was an award that he "deserved" more than anyone.
Founded in 2002 to judge genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC has written its history in fits and starts. His first conviction did not come until 2012, against Congolese Thomas Lubanga, for recruiting child soldiers. Before, in 2009, he had dared for the first time with a sitting head of state, the Sudanese Omar al Bashir, claimed for the atrocities in Darfur and never handed over.
The cases against Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta and Ivorian Laurent Gbagbo, acquitted in 2019, were also unsuccessful, setbacks that fueled the reproach that the court only looked at Africa. That criticism was diluted in March 2023, with the arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for the deportation of Ukrainian children, and exploded in November 2024, when judges issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Four months later, Filipino Rodrigo Duterte landed in detention in The Hague for his war on drugs, the first former Asian head of state in the hands of the court.
