The United Nations is at serious risk of “imminent financial collapse” after President Trump slashed U.S. funding last month, Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a letter.
In a letter sent to all 193 member states last week, Guterres warned that the U.N. could run out of money by July. “I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face. We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received,” the secretary-general wrote, according to the BBC.
President Trump pulled out of UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency; the World Health Organization; and the U.N. Human Rights Council in January, citing waste, mismanagement, and a lack of financial commitment from other countries.
“We walked away from WHO, the World Health Organization; UNRWA, the U.N. agency in Gaza that’s been completely infiltrated by Hamas. We walked out of it and defunded that, too. The so-called human rights councils that cater to countries like North Korea and Venezuela and Iran. We’ve walked away from that,” United States Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told The Daily Wire in December. “It’s really about focusing our effort on the parts that align with an America First agenda and defunding and walking away from the rest of it — the nonsense.”
The U.S., previously the U.N.’s largest contributor, did not pay its regular budget contribution in 2025 and provided only 30% of the expected funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations. In December, the U.S. pledged $2 billion to U.N. humanitarian programs, a fraction of the $17 billion it spent in 2022, according to the BBC.
“[The U.N.] needs to get back to basics, stop with all of the other nonsense, trying to do everything for everybody all over the world. Stop with the focus on climate, stop with the focus on gender and all of these other social issues, regardless of how you feel about them, and let’s get back to peace,” Waltz said.
Prior to recent funding reductions, U.S. taxpayers had been providing 22% of the U.N.’s regular budget, more than the next three highest contributors combined.
President Trump has shifted his focus to his newly established Board of Peace, which is intended to oversee the technocratic transitional government for Gaza, among other geopolitical objectives.
The Board has a $1 billion permanent membership fee, and with 60+ countries invited, is seen by many as a potential challenger to the United Nations.
Several other major donor nations have also announced funding reductions. The United Kingdom and Germany have implemented significant cuts to their foreign aid budgets, further compounding the U.N.’s financial troubles.
Guterres’ letter described the current crisis as “categorically different” from previous financial challenges, noting that only 77% of assessed contributions were paid in 2025, leaving billions in unpaid dues.
The Secretary-General concluded that the “integrity of the entire system” depends on all nations honoring their “assessed contributions,” and should the budget shortfalls remain unaddressed, the U.N. must “fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.”
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