Rubio Sanctions the ICC as Pillay Wins Nobel
On Oct. 9, 2026, hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem "Navi" Pillay — a former judge of the International Criminal Court and former U.N. human rights chief — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced full blocking sanctions on the ICC as an institution, the first time the United States has targeted the court itself rather than individual judges and prosecutors. Treasury added the court to its Specially Designated Nationals list, freezing ICC assets under U.S. jurisdiction and barring Americans and U.S. businesses from transacting with it, with a six-month wind-down period that Rubio said was meant to let member states negotiate a solution. Rubio said the court wanted to prosecute Americans, including Border Patrol agents, and called on allies who rely on the U.S. military to "rein in" the court. The ICC said it "firmly rejects" the sanctions and called them "an assault on the rule of law," and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called them a "serious blow." In a late-night Truth Social post after his Syracuse rally and again at the rally and the next morning, Trump said the United States, "represented by me," should have won the prize, that "nobody has ever heard of" Pillay, who he said "very obviously, hates Israel," and that the award was "an indelible stain on Norway." No members of Congress had issued statements on the sanctions at the time of seeding.
“[On Truth Social late Friday, after his Syracuse rally, on Pillay's prize:] The United States of America, represented by me, as your President, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn't. … I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else! … [The award is] an indelible stain on Norway [and the prize] has been forever discredited by a handful of Radical Ideologues who are Anti-Democracy, and Enemies of Civilization! [At the rally he called Pillay a "mystery person" — "I never heard of the person. Nobody did" — and on social media said she] very obviously, hates Israel.”