Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, just announced that the Donald Trump administration is eyeing radical changes to its approach to diplomacy through the organization. According to Amb. Waltz, they’re now looking into ways to “clean house” at the UN.
The United Nations has long been a sign of global stability post–World War II. They’re by far not perfect — whoever you ask, whether liberal or conservative, they probably have very credible concerns about how the organization has been run in the 80 years it’s been functional. But they have succeeded at the most important thing, which is preventing another World War.
According to Newsweek, Amb. Waltz said that has been in huge part thanks to the U.S., which provides 25% of the entire budget of the organization. It goes without saying that in Trump’s second term such expenditure has been seen as unnecessary. The first humanitarian expenditure that faced the Trump administration’s austerity cuts was, infamously, USAID, which among other functions helped Colombian farmers transition into other cash crops instead of the coca plant, helping in the fight against drug trafficking. The next target was UNESCO, and they’re now considering other slashes.
UN Ambassador for Management and Reform Jeff Bartos celebrated the cuts, noting that they have already saved the U.S. government $1 billion. However, Bartos also pointed out, “Yeah, look, the president has made it clear the U.N. has a lot of potential. It can’t be so bloated and bureaucratic. We’re going to clean house and President Trump is going to lead the way.”
President Trump has already personally had some issues with the organization, so this comes as no surprise. Trump even accused the organization of attempting to sabotage his appearance at the last United Nations General Assembly by shutting off his teleprompter and switching off the escalator just when he was about to use it. On the other side, Trump’s administration has also denied visas to delegates invited by the UN to their New York City headquarters.
Amb. Waltz took to X to announce how best the administration believes the UN can spend its allocated budget. The way the administration sees it, completely cutting off the UN would be “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” However, they do believe that from this point on the UN’s seeming autonomy should be decimated and that it should follow the administration’s assigned parameters of a 25% cut on peacekeeping, 15% overall budget cuts, and the reduction of bureaucrats globally.
The UN has become a bloated bureaucracy and MUST reform! @POTUS has said the UN must live up to its potential. We have pressed the UN to:
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) November 25, 202525% cut to global peacekeepers
Watch additional cuts & reforms the U.S. is pushingpic.twitter.com/9JqFJdZgKq
It’s still unclear how much Trump plans on cutting from the budget allocated to the UN. But if past trends are any indicator, it’s very likely that cuts will start happening rather immediately. What remains a mystery is how the UN will choose to respond. Let’s not forget that the organization is full of career diplomats who know a thing or two about approaching even more hostile situations like this. For now, however, they have chosen silence and haven’t released any official response to Amb. Waltz’s proposals.
There is also the possibility that this might open the door for a United Nations with more Chinese influence, as they might see this as an opportunity.
