Trump admin exit from UN, international organizations raises question of who’s next

After the Trump administration’s determination to retreat from dozens of United Nations and different planetary organizations, experts accidental much planetary bodies could soon find themselves connected the chopping block.

The announcement that the U.S. would exit 66 planetary organizations was successful effect to President Donald Trump’s February 2025 enforcement bid calling for a reappraisal of U.S. enactment to "all planetary organizations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said successful absorption to the announcement that the U.S. is "rejecting an outdated exemplary of multilateralism — 1 that treats the American payer arsenic the world’s underwriter for a sprawling architecture of planetary governance." Rubio warned the State Department continues to reappraisal planetary organizations, and that those taxable to the January cuts "are by nary means the lone offenders."

Rubio said that the U.S. was not turning its backmost connected the satellite but was looking to reappraisal the "international system," which helium said, "is present overrun with hundreds of opaque planetary organizations, galore with overlapping mandates, duplicative actions, ineffective outputs and mediocre fiscal and ethical governance."

UN BLASTED FOR FUNDING COMMITTEE 'CREATED TO DESTROY THE JEWISH STATE,' DESPITE BUDGET CRISIS

US President Donald Trump during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) successful New York, US, connected Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (David Dee Delgado/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hugh Dugan, erstwhile Senior Director for International Organization Affairs astatine the National Security Council during President Trump's archetypal term, told Fox News Digital that U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres "always misread" the anterior enforcement bid "as a cost-cutting directive." In trying to "cut his mode to growth" done the UN80 initiative, 

Dugan said that Guterres "meat-cleavered budgets, hitting bony and soma arsenic overmuch arsenic fat, but astatine basal it was concern arsenic usual: nary absorption connected the U.N.'s pitiful instrumentality connected investment.  Instead of lone cutting the bottommost line, besides helium should person grown the apical enactment by moving smarter for caller efficiencies."   

Launched successful March 2025, the UN80 inaugural was designed to place inefficiencies wrong the U.N. strategy and chopped costs crossed an expansive bureaucracy. In effect to Trump's withdrawal from U.N. entities, Guterres' spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said successful a connection that the caput general, "regrets the announcement by the White House," and stated that "assessed contributions to the United Nations' regular fund and peacekeeping budget...are a ineligible obligation under the U.N. Charter for each Member States, including the United States."

Brett Schaefer, a elder chap astatine the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that impacted organizations outer to the U.N. "don’t person precise overmuch money," and "don’t needfully merit U.S. backing oregon support." Withdrawing from those organizations is "more pruning astir the margins than a cardinal reassessment of U.S. relationships with planetary organizations," helium said.

For the 31 U.N.-affiliated groups connected the list, Schaefer said that the withdrawal bid is "an accidental to awesome to the U.N. wherever the United States would similar to spot consolidation oregon elimination of duplication, which is alternatively rife wrong the U.N. system."

RUBIO SLAMS UNRWA AS A 'SUBSIDIARY OF HAMAS,' VOWS IT WILL NOT 'PLAY ANY ROLE' IN DELIVERING AID TO GAZA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a United Nations Security Council ministerial gathering connected Ukraine astatine UN office successful New York connected Sept 23, 2025. (Charly Triballeau /POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Schaefer said that withdrawing from the U.N. Population Fund and U.N. Framework Convention connected Climate Change was "very accordant with the Trump administration’s policy." Schaefer besides indicated that withdrawing from the U.N. Council connected Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was a formalization of argumentation displacement that occurred successful 2018 erstwhile UNCTAD admitted "Palestinians arsenic a afloat subordinate state" and U.S. instrumentality "prohibit[ed] U.S. funding" for the organization.

Other choices, similar departing from the U.N. Department for Economic and Social Affairs, "didn’t rather marque sense," Schaefer said. He noted that the section is funded done the regular U.N. budget, which makes the determination "more of a awesome than it is truly an effectual policy."

Future rounds of cutting

Schaefer noted respective organizations, including the World Meteorological Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and U.N. Development Programme, that could beryllium taxable to aboriginal cuts.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres during his archetypal presidency astatine U.N. Headquarters successful New York, Sept. 23, 2019, during his archetypal word successful office.   (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images))

While smaller nations utilize the UNDP to administer their humanitarian donations, the U.S. does not request "a middleman" to money non-governmental organizations and supply aid, Schaefer said. He besides noted that the enactment "has had a occupation with corruption" that included concealing North Korean counterfeit wealth and providing the state with dual-use technology.

Schaefer said that the U.S. tin "promote cultivation improvement successful processing countries" done entities extracurricular the FAO, which helium said is "currently led by a Chinese national" who is "using that enactment to beforehand Chinese policies and Chinese commercialized interests successful processing countries."

On Dec. 31, UNOCHA was a signatory to a memo "which was sharply captious of Israel," Schaefer said. Schaefer believes the memo constituted "a usurpation of their neutrality" that should effect successful reprimand. Schaefer said that Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher "has made repeated statements echoing mendacious accusations of Israel causing famine and hunger and different humanitarian suffering successful Gaza that has since been proved to beryllium mendacious and without basis."

The WIPO, WMO, and FAO declined to remark astir whether they mightiness beryllium a people of aboriginal cuts.

TRUMP PULLS US OUT OF UN-LINKED MIGRATION FORUM IN BOLD IMMIGRATION MOVE

The United Nations gathering is pictured successful New York City, U.S., Feb. 23, 2023. (Mike Segar/Reuters/File Photo)

A UNDP spokesperson said that the U.S. "has been a steadfast partner" and that the it maintains its committedness to moving alongside the U.S. to "address urgent humanitarian needs, beforehand stability, and advance prosperity worldwide." The spokesperson noted that "UNDP projects are subject to strict oversight and accountability policies and mechanisms," with the UNDP "consistently rank[ing] amongst the astir transparent organizations included successful the [Aid Transparency Index.] 

According to the UNDP spokesperson, "no evidence of systematic fraud oregon diversion of funds was found" erstwhile concerns involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were investigated successful 2006. The spokesperson said that the DPRK project "concluded successful 2020. Any aboriginal engagement would necessitate statement from UNDP’s Executive Board and wide directives from Member States."

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A UNOCHA spokesperson noted that the U.S. had conscionable signed an statement with UNOCHA "reinforcing our partnership."

The U.S. pledged to allocate $2 cardinal to UNOCHA astatine the extremity of December for planetary humanitarian needs.[iii] In caller years, officials antecedently told Fox News Digital that the U.S. had contributed betwixt $8 and $10 cardinal to UNOCHA