President Donald Trump addresses the General Assembly’s 75th sessions back in September 2020. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30 2025 – The Trump administration which regained the White House last week after a four-year hiatus, has come down heavily on thousands of illegal immigrants and hundreds of perceived enemies– triggering a rash of executive orders on military and federal agencies
But in the ensuing political chaos, Trump has not spared the United Nations either.
The world body is expected to be blindsided and visibly undermined as it faces several threats, including cuts in US funding, withdrawal from UN agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and possibly from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), plus the abandoning of international treaties such as the Climate Change Treaty.
Meanwhile, the US House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, the incoming US Ambassador to the UN, was quoted as saying: “In the UN, Americans see a corrupt, defunct, and paralyzed institution more beholden to bureaucracy, process, and diplomatic niceties than the founding principles of peace, security, and international cooperation laid out in its charter”.
She has also pledged to withdraw support from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
As a result, the United Nations is expected to face an exceptionally hostile White House during the next four years– even while the US still remains in arrears of its financial dues to the UN.
Asked about faltering US funding, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said the United States owes $1.5 billion to the regular budget of the UN.
And then, between the regular budget, the peacekeeping budget, and international tribunals, the total amount the US owes is $2.8 billion.
Asked whether the UN can get this money under the Trump administration, he said: “We have gotten the money for UN expenses under all of the various administrations in the past”.
Joseph Chamie, a consulting demographer and a former director of the United Nations Population Division, told IPS it is evident to nearly all observers that the Trump administration aims to reshape US-UN relations.
President Trump and his colleagues, he pointed out, can be expected to push for reform and use US funding in their attempts to achieve their desired goals. The reform goals of the Trump administration should be expected to be striking shifts from the previous US administration.
“President Trump can be expected to act more rapidly and aggressively than he did during his first presidential term.”
Regarding multilateral cooperation, he said, it will likely occur only when it is perceived as aligning with the interests of the Trump administration.
“Regarding the Trump administration’s comments, observations and official statements, I recommend that they heed the words of John Adams, the second president of the United States.”
He astutely remarked: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
In brief, the facts, evidence and realities regarding the United Nations system and its operations cannot be altered by the wishes of the Trump administration, declared Chamie.
Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively on the politics of the UN, told IPS, a Trump administration will present unprecedented challenges to the United Nations and the international legal norms it is supposed to uphold.
“No leader of a major power since the UN’s founding in 1945 has expressed such disdain for fundamental principles of international law.”
It should be remembered, though, that the United States was already undermining such principles under previous administrations, he pointed out.
For example, even under (former US President Joe) Biden, the United States recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, both seized by military force in contravention to unanimous UN Security Council resolutions.
Hostility towards UN agencies isn’t new either, said Dr Zunes.
Biden, with the support of a large bipartisan majority of Congress, eliminated U.S. funding for UNRWA. Previous administrations have withdrawn the United States from UNHRC and UNESCO and have threatened to withdraw funding from any UN agency which would admit the State of Palestine as a member.
“In addition, during the past 55 years, the United States has vetoed far more UN Security Council resolutions than any other country”.
The difference between Trump and previous presidents is the flagrancy of his opposition to the entire United Nations system and idea of any legal restraints on the actions of the United States or its allies.
Despite frequent double-standards, previous U.S. administrations at least gave lip service to what Biden referred to as the “rules-based international order.” Not Trump, however.
Given Trump’s disdain for domestic law–having been indicted for 78 felonies and thus far convicted of 34–it is not surprising that he would have so little regard for international law as well, declared Dr Zunes.
Asked about a letter from the United States concerning the Paris Climate Agreement, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the US has notified the Secretary-General, in his capacity as depositary, of its withdrawal, on 27 January of this year, from the Paris Agreement which as you will recall was agreed to on 12 December 2015.
The United States had signed the Paris Agreement on 22 April 2016 and expressed its consent to be bound by the Agreement by acceptance on 3 September 2016. It then withdrew from the Agreement effective on 4 November 2020, before accepting it again on 19 February 2021.
According to Article 28, paragraph 2, of the Paris Agreement, the withdrawal of the United States will take effect on 27 January 2026.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the Paris Agreement and to support all effective efforts to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Dujarric.
Asked about the sharp criticism of the UN at last week’s confirmation hearings for the next US ambassador to the United Nations, Haq told reporters: “I wouldn’t go into any sort of thing like a point-by-point rebuttal, but obviously it’s clear the work that the United Nations and its agencies do.”
“It’s clear the importance we have in a variety of fields, whether we’re talking about peacekeeping efforts around the world, whether we’re talking about humanitarian aid, whether we’re talking about the economic assistance that UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and other entities provide; whether you’re talking about support for the environment, support for population planning”.
There’s a world of activities, he pointed out, that are promoted by the United Nations, and “underlying it all is the core fact that what the United Nations has succeeded most at, is making sure that all of the nations of the world have a reliable, peaceful venue where they can negotiate with each other and deal with all potential conflicts, all potential cross-cutting issues collectively.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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