Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court

US President Donald Trump on Thursday authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, repeating action he took during his first term.

ICC condemned the sanctions on Friday and called on its 125 member states to support its staff.

“The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it,” it said in a statement.

Trump’s move coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who — along with his former defense minister and a leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas — is wanted by the ICC over the war in the Gaza Strip.

It was unclear how quickly the US would announce names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.

The sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.

The Netherlands, the host nation of the court based in The Hague, said it regretted the sanctions. “The court’s work is essential in the fight against impunity,” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a post on X.

But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of Trump, said the sanctions showed it might be time to leave the ICC.

The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes.