Media reports say the Trump administration is preparing executive orders that could drastically reduce the United States’ role in the United Nations and other international organizations, as well as begin a process to review and potentially abrogate certain forms of multilateral treaties.
The New York Times reports the first of the two draft orders, titled “Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations” calls for terminating funding for any United Nations agency or other international body that meets any one of several criteria.
Those criteria include organizations that give full membership to the Palestinian Authority or Palestine Liberation Organization, or support programs that fund abortion or any activity that circumvents sanctions against Iran or North Korea.
The draft order also calls for terminating funding for any organization that “is controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism” or is blamed for the persecution of marginalized groups or any other systematic violation of human rights, according to The New York Times.
The order calls for reducing voluntary U.S. support for the United Nations and other global bodies by 40 percent.
The order reportedly establishes a committee to recommend where those funding cuts should be made.
If adopted, the proposed directive would represent a broad attack on the value and priorities of the United Nations, which Trump has recently called an ineffectual talk shop. A separate order would limit U.S. participation in some treaties.
The Washington Post says Trump’s new U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, has pledged to put U.S. interests first and use the leverage of disproportionate U.S. funding of the body. But the draft order would go much further, and with an apparent goal of slashing U.S. participation across a swath of U.N. agencies and activities to which the Trump administration objects on fiscal or ideological grounds.
U.S. agencies would be directed to identify the “compelling national interest” for continued funding.
An introduction to the order reads the United States is in fact the United Nations’ largest supporter, providing nearly a quarter of its total revenues, and the American contribution continues to grow annually.
The draft order has not been released, and it was not clear whether changes were planned before its release, The Washington Post noted.
