UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Mike Waltz is approaching his recent role as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a mandate from President Donald Trump to cut funding for once-longstanding American priorities the same way he represents Florida in Congress.
“In almost every decision I can make here, I deal with America first, the American taxpayer first,” Waltz said at a recent event at the Richard Nixon Foundation. “So if I had to stand up at a town hall with a group of mechanics, firefighters, nurses and teachers and testify to them that their money was being well spent in accordance with our interests, that would be incredibly difficult right now.”
He added: “And that is why, quite frankly, we are using our contribution as a lever for reform” at the United Nations
In recent meetings with U.N. officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres, Waltz and his colleagues at the U.S. mission have argued that the United States – the U.N.’s largest donor – will no longer foot the bill in the way it has since the world body was founded eight decades ago.
Instead, U.S. officials are taking an à la carte approach to paying U.N. contributions, selecting which operations and agencies they believe are consistent with Trump’s agenda and which no longer serve U.S. interests. It’s a major shift from the way previous administrations – both Republican and Democratic – have handled the United Nations, and it has forced the world body, already going through its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staff and program cuts.
Where the Trump administration is seeking changes at the United Nations
Shortly after his confirmation as ambassador, Waltz met with Guterres last month as world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly. The former congressman said in a Sept. 25 interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business that he made it clear to the top U.N. official that U.S.-backed changes needed to happen “before you start talking about taxpayer money.”
“Washington’s decision sends a worrying signal that powerful countries can get away with it and really try to apply more pressure through a process designed to give the organization the support it needs to carry out the mandates that all countries agree on,” said Daniel Forti, senior U.N. analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment or an interview with Waltz.
The US is calling for changes to the salaries and benefits of some senior UN officials until the US can “achieve greater transparency”, and it wants the creation of an independent inspector general to oversee the sophisticated financial system within the world body.
But some UN organizations have been written off entirely. Waltz said in interviews that the U.S. withdrawal from organizations such as the World Health Organization, the U.N. aid agency in Gaza, known as UNRWA, and the Human Rights Council was constant. In other areas, such as contributions to the UN cultural agency UNESCO, the US decision to end support will not take effect until December 2026.
Many UN staff and groups are now watching to see whether the Trump administration’s targeting of climate and gender initiatives will also lead to significant cuts to two of the UN operation’s top priorities.
These pressures, coupled with years of dwindling support for humanitarian aid, have forced Guterres to propose a 15% cut in the overall UN budget, an 18% cut in staff and a 25% cut in peacekeeping operations around the world.
“It is a conscious and considered adaptation of an already conservative proposal for 2026 – reflecting both the urgency and the ambition of the reforms we are undertaking,” Guterres told a UN budget committee this month.
UN peacekeeping suffers a setback
One of the most drastic cuts to date has been in UN peacekeeping. The U.S. has agreed to pay $680 million of its outstanding bill of more than $2 billion for various missions, according to a senior U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations. As a result, about 13,000 to 14,000 military and police personnel will be sent home out of more than 50,000 peacekeepers stationed in nine global missions.
UN officials have warned that the withdrawal of these troops from previous conflict areas in South Sudan, Kosovo and Cyprus, among others, will have sedate and long-term consequences.
Guterres says that while UN peacekeeping accounts for only a petite fraction of global military spending – about half of one percent – it remains one of the most effective and cost-effective tools for establishing international peace and security.”
U.N. observers say the U.S. cuts and changes will go beyond enforcing conservative financial values at an international organization and lead to a shift that will fundamentally change the way the United Nations operates around the world.
“We also found that there is really no other country in the world other than the United States that has been willing or able to take on this role of financial insurer to any significant extent,” said Forti of the International Crisis Group. “Not China, not the European countries, not the Gulf.”
This is forcing development and humanitarian organizations to “reduce what the United Nations can actually deliver on the ground, and there is little prospect of the United States returning to its previous role on a large scale,” he said.
Even as those cuts are underway, Waltz dismissed concerns that the U.S. would withdraw entirely from the UN, echoing Trump’s recent speech to the General Assembly about the world body’s “great” but untapped potential.
The US wants to expand its influence in many UN standard-setting initiatives where it competes with China, such as the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.
“We are still the largest bill payer,” Waltz said at the Nixon event last week. “China creeps into a very close second place and this is a key place in our competition with the People’s Republic of China.”
He said he understands those in the Republican base who say, “We should just close up shop, turn off the lights at the embassy and walk away.”
But Waltz added: “We still need a place in the world where everyone can talk, even if it’s with the North Koreans, the Venezuelans, the Europeans, the Russians (and) the Chinese.”
