President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders Thursday, one targeting the International Criminal Court and a second on “anti-Christian bias.”
The ICC action places financial and visa sanctions on “individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or our allies,” according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN, an effort to punish the body for issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The Hague-based court condemned Trump’s executive order, which it said seeks “to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independence and impartial judicial work.”
“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,” the ICC said in a statement Friday.
The ICC warrants, condemned by then-President Joe Biden after they were issued last year, sought the arrests of Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for Israel’s military actions in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. The ICC simultaneously sought the arrests of top Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was later killed.
Critics say the warrants imply equivalency between the leader of a top US ally and the leader of a terrorist organization. While neither the US nor Israel are party to the ICC, the warrants make travel difficult to any of the 124 signatory countries that would be compelled to arrest the Israeli leaders.
The prime minister’s office has dismissed the warrants as “absurd and antisemitic.”
The ICC’s targeting of Netanyahu also sparked backlash from Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Last month, the GOP-controlled House passed a bill sanctioning the ICC, but Senate Democrats blocked its passage.
A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s actions Thursday fell short of addressing Democrats’ concerns about the ICC’s work surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Leader Schumer has been crystal clear that the ICC needs to be reformed and reshaped due to its deep bias against Israel,” Schumer press secretary Angelo Roefaro said in a statement.
He continued, “This EO seems to include the strong provisions that go after the ICC on Israel, but does not include the problematic extraneous provisions unrelated to Israel included in the Republican ICC bill that the Democratic offer sought to fix to protect the ICC’s work against Putin.”
Netanyahu, who is in Washington, DC, this week, became the first foreign leader to visit Trump at the White House on Tuesday, appearing at his side during a joint news conference when the president announced that the US will “take over” the Gaza Strip. While the two leaders have had a complicated relationship, Trump’s most recent comments have reinforced an impression the Israeli leader would enjoy a far wider remit from the American government to prosecute his goals with Trump in office.
Thursday’s move is not the first time Trump has sanctioned the ICC. During his first term, he authorized sanctions and visa restrictions against ICC personnel after the court opened a probe into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan by US and Afghan forces, as well as alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban.
Trump’s other executive order Thursday, against “anti-Christian bias,” was announced earlier in the day.
“Today, I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general — who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi — the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias,” Trump said at an event tied to the National Prayer Breakfast.
This story has been updated with additional information.
