The move has drawn both condemnation and praise from the international community.

The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.

Trump's move, on Thursday, coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over the war in Gaza.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders said on Friday that Trump was wrong to impose sanctions on the ICC.

"Sanctions are the wrong tool," said Scholz. "They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important."

Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council of EU leaders, wrote on social media platform Bluesky that sanctioning the ICC "undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole".

The Netherlands, the host nation of the court based in The Hague, also said it regretted the sanctions.

The ICC itself condemned the sanctions and said it "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."

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

"It's time for Hungary to review what we're doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions! New winds are blowing in international politics. We call it the Trump-tornado," he said on X.


--Reuters--