UN Officials Beg for Cash as Trump Pushes America-First Reforms [WATCH]

United Nations officials are warning of a deepening financial crisis after funding reductions and unpaid dues from member states, including the United States, have left several agencies struggling to maintain operations.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned in late January that the organization is approaching a financial breaking point, largely because countries have failed to pay required contributions.

That warning was echoed Thursday by officials from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), who said the agency is now operating in what they described as “survival mode.”

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“We are currently in survival mode, delivering under strain,” U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk told delegates in Geneva on Thursday, according to Reuters.

“This means more hate speech and attacks, and fewer laws to stop them.”

The financial strain follows a series of funding reductions under President Donald Trump, who since returning to office has moved to scale back U.S. support for U.N. agencies and programs the administration considers wasteful, politically biased, or hostile to American interests.

The administration has also pushed reforms aimed at reducing bureaucracy and requiring other nations to shoulder more of the organization’s costs.

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According to a State Department spokesperson, the United States led 193 member countries in enacting $570 million in cuts and trimming 2,900 U.N. staff positions.

Türk appealed for $400 million to sustain the human rights office, which oversees global monitoring, reporting, and advocacy.

He said funding shortfalls, driven largely by declining contributions from the United States and European countries, have already forced the agency to reduce its activities.

While voluntary U.S. contributions to agencies such as the U.N. Human Rights Office have been cut, mandatory payments to the U.N.’s regular budget have also gone unpaid by multiple countries, including the United States.

Contributions to the U.N. regular budget are assessed based on economic size.

The United States is responsible for 22% of the budget, the largest share, while China contributes roughly 20%. Payments for the 2026 regular budget were due Feb. 8, but only 52 of the U.N.’s 193 member states had paid their dues as of Friday, according to the organization.

“The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” Guterres wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to ambassadors, according to Reuters.

“Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” he added.

U.N. officials told Reuters that the United States owes more than $2 billion for the regular U.N. budget, an additional $2.4 billion for current and past peacekeeping missions, and $43 million for international tribunals.

President Trump declined to say Sunday whether the U.S. would release the funds, telling Politico he could resolve the situation by pressuring other nations to contribute.

“If they came to Trump and told him, I’d get everybody to pay up, just like I got NATO to pay up,” Trump said.

“All I have to do is call these countries … they would send checks within minutes.”

The State Department rejected the U.N.’s characterization of the situation as a cash shortage, arguing instead that it reflects internal mismanagement.

A spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the issue was a “management crisis, not a cash crisis,” pointing to U.N. staff salaries that are 115% higher than comparable U.S. government positions, generous benefits and pensions, and a more than 30% increase in senior bureaucratic positions in New York over the past two years.

The spokesperson also said the U.N. spent $340 million on meetings and conferences in 2025.

“These misleading chicken-little complaints from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights complain about the United States remind us why President Trump decided to leave the Human Rights Council,” the spokesperson said.

The Trump administration formally withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council in February 2025, arguing the body “protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny.”

In January, the administration also announced plans to withdraw from dozens of climate-related organizations, many linked to the U.N., citing concerns that they did not serve U.S. interests.

Türk’s funding appeal came shortly after he criticized U.S. immigration enforcement following the fatal January shootings of two protestors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minnesota.

“Those who dare to speak up or protest peacefully against heavy-handed immigration raids are vilified and threatened by officials, and on occasion subjected to arbitrary violence themselves,” Türk said in a statement.

“I call on leaders at all levels in the US to halt the use of scapegoating tactics that seek to distract and divide.”

As funding debates continue, U.N. officials have warned that without changes in contributions or financial rules, the organization’s ability to operate could face further disruption in the months ahead.