Pause in US foreign aid has UN in panic over funding cuts, Trump says world body ‘not being well run’

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Israel’s UN Amb. Danny Danon: United Nations is ‘being used by hostile forces’ and needs reform

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon interviewed with Fox News Digital as the world awaits his nation’s response to Iran’s missile attacks.

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital that the U.N.’s Department of Global Communications may be a target for reform and even funding cuts, since it is often at odds with the U.S. and Israel.

The calls for reform come a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of funding to the U.N. At the time, Trump said that the world body “has tremendous potential,” but is “not being well run.” 

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned about cuts to U.S. spending at the U.N., stating that “going through with recent funding cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous.”

So far, Trump has halted new funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Administration for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council. On Feb. 27, the U.S. also terminated $377 million in grants with the United Nations Population Fund, which offers sexual and reproductive health services in 150 countries.

TRUMP CUTS US OFF FROM UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, BANS UNRWA FUNDING

File: U.S. President Donald Trump addressing the United Nations General Assembly during his first term on September 24, 2019 in New York City.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The U.N. media branch’s nearly 700 employees are tasked to “leverage the power of communications to tell the United Nations story to global audiences in multiple languages and platforms in order to mobilize action in support of the United Nations agenda.”

Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that, through the Department, “the U.S. taxpayer pays the U.N. to hire media experts and do P.R. for the purpose of blasting anti-American and antisemitic trash around the globe.”

Asked whether funding the Department of Global Communications serves U.S. interests, a U.N. spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the Department performs media outreach, operates as a newswire, and hosts the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.  

Many of the Department of Global Communications’ personnel, the spokesperson explained, are “based at 59 U.N. Information Centers across the world, which communicate about the U.N. and the collective will of its Member States in local languages, closer to the people that the U.N. serves.” 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, April 18, 2024.  (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Former member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Hugh Dugan told Fox News Digital that the need to use information centers “to lobby its own members on their dime in their countries speaks to the deep state to me.” With U.S. public support for the U.N. declining, Dugan said the Department of Global Communications “is more than failing in its own backyard in the most consequential country for its future.”

A Pew Research Center found that 52% of Americans had a favorable perspective of the U.N. as of April 2024, down from 57% in 2023.

UN ACCUSED OF DOWNPLAYING HAMAS TERRORISTS’ USE OF GAZA HOSPITALS AS NEW REPORT IGNORES IMPORTANT DETAILS

Fox News Digital asked Under Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming whether the Department of Global Communications is involved in oversight of communications for additional U.N. entities. 

Fleming said that her department “does not have oversight, but convenes regular coordination meetings with communication colleagues from across the U.N. system to discuss crisis situations and content plans.” Fleming also confirmed that the Department of Global Communications has charge of the main United Nations’ social media account.

Flags of the UN and USA fly outside the United Nations headquarters ahead of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 15, 2023. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of U.N. Watch, told Fox News Digital that “in terms of its regular communications, whether it’s the Secretary General, or whether it’s various U.N. social media accounts, are routinely engaged in anti-American and anti-Israel, and you could say, to the extent that it’s demonizing the Jewish people, antisemitic messaging.”

U.S. Ambassador-designate to the U.N. Elise Stefanik recently tweeted that “the days of propping up organizations at the United Nations that run counter to our interests are long gone. We will no longer fund terrorism, antisemitism, and anti-Israel hate.” Stefanik was speaking at the ADL’s ‘NEVER IS NOW’ summit.

AMERICAN CENSORED BY UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, ACCUSED OF USING ‘DISRESPECTFUL LANGUAGE’

UN vehicle enters the UNRWA offices in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Apr 2, 2024. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS (Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)

Fox News Digital found multiple Tweets from the U.N. Twitter account that promote a one-sided narrative of the Israel-Gaza conflict. These included a Jan. 29 Tweet in support of the UN Relief and Works Administration for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which states that “Israeli legislation imposes massive restraints on UNRWA’s operations,” but fails to note why Israel has banned UNRWA’s operations and a growing number of countries have pulled funding from the terror-tied organization.

A Dec. 27 World Health Organization Tweet retweeted by the United Nations said that a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital was part of a “systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza,” but did not mention that the Israel Defense Forces entered the facility to apprehend multiple members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including the director, who stored weaponry inside the hospital, as terror groups have done repeatedly during the war.

Spokespersons from the U.S. State Department, U.S. Mission to the U.N., and the United Nations were unable to provide Fox News Digital with figures about what percentage of the Department of Global Communications’ more than $117.9 million budget is covered by the U.S.

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In 2022, the U.S.’s $18.1 billion contribution to the U.N. covered 30% of the organization’s total budget. By 2024, U.S. contributions to the U.N. were at 22% for the general budget and 27% for the peacekeeping budget. The U.N. reports that more than 40% of humanitarian aid it donated in 2024 was provided by the U.S. 

A State Department spokesperson did not answer direct questions about whether funding the Department of Global Communications serves U.S. interests, but explained that a 90-day review period instated by a Jan. 20 executive order “is a measure put in place for us to align our ongoing work with the America First agenda. The results of the in-depth review will be communicated transparently.” The spokesperson said that the State “Department and USAID take their role as stewards of taxpayer dollars very seriously.
 

Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on Twitter @BWBailey85