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US President Donald Trump decried the “disgraceful” Nobel Peace Prize choice on Friday as leaving an “indelible stain” on Norway, arguing that the award should have gone to him.
The comment coincided with an announcement of sweeping US sanctions on the International Criminal Court, hours after one of its former judges won the prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.
The court denounced the move as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order”, and called on its 125 member states to take action to defend it.
South African judge and human rights champion Navi Pillay won the prestigious prize on Friday in recognition of her work against war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But Trump labelled the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s choice as “a disgraceful and embarrassing decision”, telling a rally of his supporters in Syracuse, New York he had “never heard of” Pillay.
“I never heard of this particular person, but congratulations anyway,” he said.
“The United States of America, represented by me as your president, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t.”
He said the choice of Pillay as laureate left “an indelible stain on the country of Norway”.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace prize.
But his war against Iran, his territorial expansion ambitions as in Greenland, his hard line on migrants, and his attacks on multilateralism and the media disqualified him, according to experts in Oslo speaking before Pillay was announced as laureate.
“The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilisation,” Trump said.
Pillay had joked about sharing her prize with Trump, telling a crowd who applauded her after the announcement of the award: “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”
The jibe appeared to be in reference to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who gave her Nobel gold medal to Trump after winning the prize last year. (Story continues below)
International Criminal Court headquarters in The Hague. (Photo: Hypergio via Wikimedia Commons)
Rubio blasts ‘rogue court’
The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court, founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges.
“The Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” it said in a statement on Friday after the latest sanctions were announced.
“This is not just about defending a single institution, but about safeguarding the international order grounded upon the rule of law. History will judge this moment.”
Friday’s sanctions are quite sweeping, potentially punishing companies that provide services such as telecoms or software to the court itself, amounting to an unprecedented attack on an institution founded on an international treaty. The US initially signed the Rome Statute that founded the court but never ratified it.
“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio 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 US Treasury announced the sanctions with a six-month initial grace period, and some other exemptions that would allow some transactions for telecoms, software, payment of pensions and transactions related to detainees.
Washington has denounced the ICC over arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and an investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan, which the ICC says is “deprioritised”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on social media that the six-month period “offers a window for dialogue” but added that the bloc “has options to ensure that (the ICC) can continue its vital work”.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants against more than 70 people, including world leaders and major figures in global conflicts. In addition to Netanyahu, it has sought the arrest of Hamas figures.
Others who were the subject of arrest warrants include Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Charges against Kenyan President William Ruto and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta were withdrawn.
