For the past week, President Donald Trump’s U.N. envoy, Nikki Haley, has strained to head off “slash-and-burn cuts” by Republican lawmakers that could cripple the United Nations. In the end, though, the White House itself gut-punched Haley and the international community, drawing up draft plans to cut funding for critical programs and withdraw from international treaties.
Trump’s inner circle prepared a draft executive order that mulls 40 percent cuts in voluntary U.S. funding for key U.N. agencies, including UNICEF and the World Food Program, according to a copy of the five-page order obtained by Foreign Policy. Trump’s team also wants to see whether mandatory funding items like peacekeeping can be made voluntary and seeks to review U.S. membership in a slew of international treaties.
The disclosure, first reported Wednesday by the New York Times, came just a day after Haley was confirmed as Trump’s new U.N. envoy with broad bipartisan support. The former South Carolina governor had highlighted the virtues of U.S. contributions for U.N. food and refugee programs, calling them “immensely important.” But she may have been blindsided by the executive orders, just like Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo were Wednesday by reports that Trump plans to reopen CIA black sites and possibly return to using torture.
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