President Trump is addressing the United Nations General Assembly as new polling reveals deep American skepticism about the institution's core mission. A Gallup survey shows 73% of Americans believe the UN does a poor job of maintaining international peace and security, while 70% say the same about upholding international law and protecting human rights.
The report card comes as the UN spends roughly $70 billion per year. Elsewhere in the world, the organization scores better, a pattern that reflects the dynamic of poorer member states looking to wealthier nations for assistance through the sprawling body. Sub-Saharan African nations are particularly supportive of the organization.
At the center of the reform effort is UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, who has described how peacekeeping missions have been abused. In congressional testimony, Waltz said the UN allowed countries to use peacekeeping operations as cash cows for their militaries. Peacekeepers could bring equipment, park it, never use it, take it home brand new, and get it paid for by the UN. Such operations can employ between 10,000 and 18,000 soldiers, with costs that Waltz calls quite significant. He is ending that practice as part of broader reforms to a body whose budget has quadrupled over the past 25 years.
American skepticism has deep roots. For 33 consecutive years, the General Assembly has voted to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, and for decades it has opposed Israel's attempts to protect its citizens from Palestinian terrorists. Waltz has called the body a cesspool of antisemitism. Most recently, the UN voted overwhelmingly to adopt a new map that enlarges Africa's presence on the globe, with the United States as the sole dissenter. In a memo explaining the outlier vote, Deputy U.S. Representative Yaryna Ferencevych called such resolutions barnacles on our work here, writing that instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, the body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice.
Critics point out that the UN rarely has much real-world impact. It has done nothing to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war or to help keep the world's oil flowing through the Straits of Hormuz. Instead, the organization is hyper-focused on climate change, gender equality and other issues that may scratch a globalist itch but appear little related to the cause of peace.
Meanwhile, the UN is going broke. Last year the Economist reported that the UN would brief members on a previously unreported $600 million cut to its $3.7 billion administrative budget aimed at avoiding default. The cut included a hiring freeze, yet may not be enough. A combination of deadbeat members and mad budget rules have led to a liquidity crisis. A leaked memo suggesting the Trump administration might cut off funding threatened a financial crash in the citadel of peace and security.
The Trump White House has not bankrupted the UN by withholding payments. Instead, it appointed Waltz to drive much-needed reforms. According to Politico, he is generally well-regarded, including among many Democrats on Capitol Hill, which is rare praise for a Trump appointee.
Waltz is working to downsize the bloated UN, focusing on its staff of 100,000, who are paid roughly 17% more than equivalent U.S. civil servants. In testimony to Congress, he said his team pushed through a historic 15% cut of $570 million from the UN's regular budget, eliminating nearly 3,000 headquarters positions. That change alone provided $126 million in savings for U.S. taxpayers. Waltz recently told Fox Digital that budget cuts now total $1 billion.
He is also overhauling UN peacekeeping operations, some of which have been around for 30, 50 or even 80 years. Waltz argues such forces are important to provide breathing room for political settlement of a conflict, but it cannot then become an excuse to not have a political resolution. He cited the peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which costs a billion dollars a year and has been there for 30 years, as an operation that should end.
Waltz is just getting started, and reforming an institution so large and complex takes time, which he may not have. Soon the UN will elect a new secretary-general to succeed Portugal's António Guterres, who has served since 2017. Most candidates who have stepped forward appear eager to embrace the reforms advocated by the White House, alarmed that President Trump is ready to eviscerate the UN's funding if changes are not made and a U.S.-friendly official is not elected.
Finances are not Trump's only weapon. When the White House announced the creation of the Board of Peace last year to oversee the Israel-Gaza conflict, UN officials took notice. The administration's willingness to build alternative structures has added pressure on the organization to accept reform.