Within hours of his swearing-in in January, Trump signed an executive order directing the US to withdraw, again, from the Paris climate agreement, echoing a similar directive from his first term.
Within weeks of his second term, Trump issued an order directing that the US will not participate in the UN Human Rights Council, will conduct a review of its membership in UNESCO and suspend funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
And when Trump arrived at the UN Headquarters for the 80th General Assembly session in September, he did not hold back and delivered one of his harshest rebukes of the world body.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential… but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential… all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve war,” Trump said in his speech.
Criticising the UN over migration, Trump said, “Not only is the UN not solving the problems it should… it’s actually creating new problems for us to solve. The best example is… the crisis of uncontrolled migration… The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.”
Trump noted that in 2024, the UN budgeted USD 372 million in cash assistance to support an estimated 624,000 migrants journeying into the US. Trump also slammed the UN for its “predictions” about climate change, describing it as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Though the US remains the largest donor to the UN in 2025, it clawed back over USD 1 billion in funding to the world body.
Guterres, in December, said the UN ended 2024 with USD 760 million in unpaid assessments, most of it still outstanding, and has yet to receive USD 877 million in contributions due for 2025, bringing total arrears to around USD 1.586 billion.
In a sign of the times, the UN said it will no longer provide paper towels in UNHQ main campus restrooms servicing office spaces and encouraged use of electric hand-dryers. The move is expected to save over USD 100,000 per year.
India voiced support for sustainable and predictable financing of the UN system, emphasising that resources should be used effectively and efficiently.
Underlining that both global peace and prosperity are endangered today, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, said that in the real world, nothing can run forever without reform and repair.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
