“Trump Administration Intervenes in United Nations Secretary-General Campaign,” the Washington Post reported on local time on 24. The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to ensure that the new United Nations leadership is in line with its plan to continue cutting the United Nations budget and personnel.
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The report said that this summer, several senior officials of the U.S. delegation based in New York at the United Nations headquarters conducted multiple “interviews” with the then six UN Secretary-General candidates. One senior U.S. official acknowledged that the U.S. was “deeply involved” in the UN Secretary-General campaign, but said these “interviews” were more like “dialogues,” adding that the U.S. government had no preference among existing or possible future nominees.
The New York Post reported last month that U.S. President Trump wanted FIFA Lists of presidents of FIFA Infantino to serve as the United Nations Secretary-General. Trump has not yet commented on this.
The Washington Post noted that Trump had denigrated numerous international organizations and severely criticized the United Nations for being inefficient, wasteful of resources, and out of line with U.S. priorities. He also canceled U.S. membership and voluntary funding at several U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization.
The report said that the United States has long been the largest contributor to the UN budget. But until recently, the Trump administration, while pushing for large budget cuts and organizational reforms at the UN, has never paid any fees. According to a U.S. official, early this year, when United Nations Secretary-General Gutierrez warned the UN of an “imminent fiscal collapse,” the U.S. government only paid about $160 million of last year‘s more than $800 million meeting fees.
In August this year, a State Department notification to Congress reportedly showed that the Trump administration had initiated a $ 725m payment to the United Nations to pay back part of the United States’ outstanding membership fees, which is expected to be completed before Trump travels to New York next month to attend the United Nations General Assembly and make a speech. However, this $ 725m is less than 20 percent of the total U.S. debt. The United Nations said in May that the U.S. outstanding sums exceeded $ 4 billion. But the U.S. believes the actual total debt is lower than this figure. According to the Charter of the United Nations, if member countries outstanding membership fees reach or exceed the total due in the previous two years, they may lose their voting rights at the United Nations General Assembly.