In 2024, the United Nations had a $200 million cash shortfall, according to The Economist, which added, “Internal modelling suggests that the year-end cash deficit will, without cuts, probably blow out to $1.1bn, leaving the UN without money to pay salaries and suppliers by September.”
Approximately $760 million was lost in unpaid dues in 2024; the United States and China each contribute roughly 20% of the UN’s annual budget. The United States contributes $2.3 billion annually.
“Article 19 of the UN charter says that a country that skips two years’ worth of payments will lose its vote in the General Assembly (but not its veto on the Security Council, if it has one),” The Economist reported. “America’s total arrears are about $3bn, still shy of its $4.5bn two-year limit. If Mr. Trump does not pony up, America will fall foul of the rules in next year’s budget and have its vote stripped in 2027.”
In 2022, the countries, in order, that voted with the United States the most at the UN were Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom, Liberia, Hungary, Australia, Micronesia, Czechia, and the Marshall Islands. The ten countries that voted with the U.S. the least were Syria, Nicaragua, Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba, Belarus, Algeria, Bolivia, and Russia.
In 2021, the top countries voting with the U.S. were Israel, Canada, Micronesia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Marshall Islands, the Czech Republic, France, Estonia, and Hungary.
Brett Schaefer told the American Enterprise Institute, “If this is an organization that has no value whatsoever to our national interests, we need to get out of it and stop funding it because it’s a waste of our time and a waste of our resources.” He added:
This is an organization that Donald Trump had stopped providing funding to because this was an organization that was extraordinarily compromised. It was promoting extremism, celebrating terrorism through its school books and school materials. It was allowing Hamas members to join it as an organization, as employees of the organization. It allowed Hamas, without complaint, to put tunnels and military facilities in close proximity to their schools and their hospitals so that they would be protected by the presence of UNRWA and UN facilities.”
“The Human Rights Council has never condemned China in its entire history,” he noted. “The UN General Assembly has never condemned China for its human rights practices. Historically, Cuba has been a terrible abuser of human rights. The UN Human Rights Council has never condemned Cuba. The UN General Assembly has never condemned Cuba.”
On February 4, President Donald Trump issued an executive action which stated, “The United States will not fund UNRWA or the UNHRC and that the United States will not satisfy any claims to pay 2025 assessments or prior arrears by these organizations.”
