Trump's Budget Seeks Big Cuts to UN Funding

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The dictator-dominated United Nations is in a panic, claiming that it will be “impossible” for it to continue its allegedly “essential work” under budget cuts outlined in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for next year. While the proposed cuts to U.S. taxpayer funding of the UN are not quite the 50 percent rollbacks previously discussed by the administration, the decreased budget could nevertheless play a significant role in reining in the out-of-control UN. All funding for UN “global warming” schemes, for instance, would be slashed. However, globalists in Congress and the establishment media are already howling, ensuring a battle awaits ahead as the UN meddles more and more in U.S. affairs.

The Trump administration Fiscal Year 2018 budget, dubbed “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” includes relatively modest cuts of about 33 percent, or $19 billion, to a wide range of global programs including unconstitutional foreign aid, U.S. diplomacy, and UN schemes. One goal, officials told reporters, was to force other governments to pay a larger share of the UN burden. There are three primary options to put the cuts into effect: Reduce the level of funding for international organizations’ budgets, reduce assessment rates on how much is demanded of U.S. taxpayers by the UN, and if necessary, unilaterally refuse to pay what the UN outfits demand.

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Among the specific saving for U.S. taxpayers would be a reduction of around $1.2 billion in spending, or half, on the UN’s brutal “peacekeeping” military, which has become infamous for raping thousands of women and children around the world with absolute impunity. Trump is hoping to cap U.S. contributions to the UN’s scandal-plagued “peace” military, which has a long history of brutality and mass murder, at about 25 percent. However, with a massive budget and some 16 countries under UN military occupation, the UN’s infamous “blue helmets” will still be able to inflict enormous damage on their victims around the world. In just one town in the Ivory Coast occupied by UN forces, a survey showed that eight out of 10 underage girls admitted to being raped by UN troops.

But the cuts go beyond the UN’s predatory military forces. A funding cut of 44 percent for other international organizations and UN schemes is also proposed as part of the Trump plan drafted by budget chief Mick Mulvaney, who called it the “Taxpayers First” budget. For example, the budget proposal requests close to $1 billion in funds for an account used to fund the UN’s regular budget. That is a decrease of more than 30 percent from the 2017 levels approved by the Republican Congress under globalist former President Barack Obama. In addition, Trump is requesting a budget of zero dollars for the “International Organizations and Programs” account, another federal slush fund used to hand American tax dollars to UN schemes.

Under Trump’s budget, the UN’s increasingly discredited “global warming” scheming would be completely defunded. While Obama illegally promised billions of U.S. tax dollars to the UN and Third World dictators under the guise of “climate change,” and did illegally transfer some money, Trump’s budget does away with all of that. Both the Green Climate (slush) Fund, or GCF, and the Global Climate Change Initiative, would receive zero U.S. tax dollars. Trump has still not fulfilled his key campaign promise of canceling the UN’s “Paris Agreement” pseudo-treaty on climate, but the lack of funds will severely hamper the scheme. A decision on the Paris regime is expected soon.

When it comes to the UN and other international organizations, the proposed budget seeks to “reduce or end direct funding to international organizations whose missions do not substantially advance U.S. foreign policy interests, are duplicative, or are not well-managed.” But even domestic bureaucracies used to shower U.S. tax dollars on foreign regimes, dictators, leftwing activists, and globalist schemes would face cuts under the Trump budget. For instance, the proposed budget for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would be cut by around 32 percent to $38 billion, down from almost $55 billion in 2017.

While the tone is clear, the budget did not contain many details or specifics on how steep the cuts would or should be to each particular UN scheme. Instead, the proposal calls for a strategic review that will determine where to cut while maintaining U.S. “national interests,” with a priority on propping up organs that “most directly support U.S. national security interests.” There is also a special emphasis on cutting off funds “for organizations that work against U.S. foreign policy interests.” As regular readers of this magazine know well, virtually every single UN agency works against American interests. In fact, many UN agencies brazenly work against even the U.S. Constitution and the God-given rights it protects.

The UN and its allied swamp creatures in Congress and the establishment media are already gearing up for battle. Indeed, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the former leader of the Socialist International alliance that includes many political parties responsible for murdering millions, sounded almost hysterical while meddling in the U.S. budget debate. “The figures presented would simply make it impossible for the UN to continue all of its essential work advancing peace, development, human rights and humanitarian assistance,” said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the controversial UN boss.

Last month, Trump changed his tone some on the UN. After previously blasting the UN as an enemy of freedom and the United States that was trying to fleece the American people with its climate “hoax,” Trump sounded more amenable to the UN and its agenda. In fact, his comments were seen to be pro-UN by some officials, with the president even appearing to look favorably on giving the UN power to settle disputes among nations and more. However, he did emphasize that the U.S. share of the cost was not fair, and that the organization should be reformed.

Picking up on those themes, the UN boss’ spokesman suggested Guterres, the Big Government-loving advocate of mass immigration, was on the same page as Trump when it came to making the UN more efficient. “The Secretary-General is totally committed to reforming the United Nations,” Dujarric was quoted as saying by Reuters and other establishment media outlets. “We stand ready to discuss with the United States and any other member state how best we can create a more cost-effective organization to pursue our shared goals and values.”

At the U.S. State Department, bureaucrats — the overwhelming majority of whom lean Democrat and support globalism — sounded like Guterres. “I think there’s a recognition that these rates of assessment are often determined by these organizations, despite the fact that the U.S., in many cases, believes that other nations should be paying a larger, more equitable share consistent with either their economic status or the benefits that they accrue from those organizations,” State Department budget and planning director Doug Pitkin was quoted as saying. “So we’re also looking to these organizations to implement reforms, to lower costs, and deliver greater results.”

It is true that American taxpayers are the largest financiers of the UN — by far. Last year, U.S. taxpayers (and creditors) paid more than $10 billion to the UN, its disgraced “peace” troops, and its perpetually expanding array of bureaucracies, agencies, programs, and more. Americans pay between a third and a fourth of the UN’s budget — more than 185 other nations, combined, and more than the next biggest three financiers combined. The “assessed contributions,” or, put in plain English, the amount of tribute the UN purports to require from Americans, are established by the UN General Assembly. However, with appropriations coming from Congress, the UN has no power to enforce its demands.

Unfortunately for American taxpayers, who voted for Trump’s anti-globalist campaign and voted to put Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress, establishment-minded GOP leaders and Democrats have already indicated that they do not support “drastic” cuts. Globalist Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, ostensibly a Republican, was quoted in the Washington Examiner in March saying that Trump’s proposed cuts to the UN budget would “probably not” be able to get through Congress. While he dishonestly tried to blame Democrats, the Kentucky senator also admitted that he “personally” supports the bloated “diplomatic portion of the federal budget.”

Of course, while slashing the UN’s budget may be a good start, it is not nearly enough to protect America, liberty, and self-government from the dictators club and the globalist establishment behind it. Instead, Americans must demand that Congress approve the American Sovereignty Restoration Act (H.R. 193). In addition to ending U.S. membership in the UN, the bill would cancel all U.S. participation in UN schemes and treaties. It would also evict the UN’s headquarters — infested with spies, terrorists, and dictators — from U.S. soil. And as the UN has made clear, nothing less will ensure the protection of American liberty and self-government.

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.