The Trump administration secured more than $1 billion in cuts to United Nations budgets in six months, officials shared with Fox News.
With the peacekeeping budget amounting to an estimated $5.1 billion, nearly 10% lower than the previous year (9.7%), as well as a 15% reduction to the United Nations’ budget from December, officials said the numbers total to more than $1 billion in cuts.
“On June 30th, with U.S. leadership, all 193 countries came together again for the second time in six months,” U.S. Ambassador for U.N. Management and Reform Jeff Bartos told Fox News. “We’ve achieved over a billion dollars of savings in six months, which is unprecedented. Any one cut would be unprecedented. The totality of the reforms is monumental.”
“The new budget, this reformed budget, the enhanced efficiency changes the culture of how the U.N. looks at peacekeeping,” Bartos added. “Every dollar has to achieve impact on the ground.”
U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric confirmed the reduced budgets, calling the numbers “unprecedented.”
Upon the U.N. adopting its 2026 budget, Bartos described the changes as “leaner” and “better prioritized.”
The budget cuts came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the United Nations also signed an agreement in December that Rubio said “radically reforms the way the U.S. programs, funds, and oversees UN-administered humanitarian work, ensuring that more lives will be saved for fewer U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
“$570 million in savings and the reduction of nearly 2900 posts are unprecedented reforms that represent an important first step to make the UN more accountable, more disciplined and better equipped to deliver real results,” he wrote. “The United States will continue to advance President Trump’s vision for a back-to-basics UN that meets its full potential.”
