US President Donald Trump overnight delivered a lengthy, scathing rant on the decision to award South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a post on Truth social, Trump called the decision an “indelible stain on Norway” as he dismissed Pillay’s career and touted his own diplomatic record.
“I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else! In fact, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever heard of her other than the fact that she, very obviously, hates Israel,” he wrote, adding: “I don’t know what the woman has done.”
He went on to claim he “should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes” for having “settled 8 wars” and said he would soon “settle, or win, two more,” pointing to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
Trump listed the conflicts he said he had “settled” as Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Israel and Hamas.
Becoming increasingly irate, Trump continued to detail his perceived achievements before renewing his attack on Pillay, who he described as a “liberal person who works at the United Nations.”
“The Nobel ‘Peace’ Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy, and enemies of civilization!” he concluded.
The post came after the president had already lambasted the award decision while speaking at a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, where he branded it as “disgraceful and embarrassing.”
Pillay
Born in Durban on South Africa’s east coast, Pillay would go on to become the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2008, a post she held until 2014.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists, helping establish rights for prisoners on Robben Island.
She then served as acting judge on the South African High Court and as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
She was also appointed as a judge on the International Criminal Court in 2003, working within the Appeals Chamber until 2008.
In 2025, whilst serving as the chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Pillay accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Learning she had won the Peace Prize on Friday, Pillay appeared unable to resist taking a playful jab at Trump.
“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” she said, in an apparent nod to last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, presenting her award to the American president.
US sanctions ICC
It comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday that the US would be sanctioning the International Criminal Court, which Washington has repeatedly accused of “politicised actions” and of “targeting Israel.”
“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us,” Rubio said in a video address shared on social media.
“Our message is clear, the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC,” he added.