President Donald Trump, in a brief phone call with POLITICO, cast himself as the savior for a United Nations in danger of financial collapse, touting his ability to get members to pay unpaid dues.
But he declined Sunday to say whether the United States would make good on the billions of dollars it owes the international body.
Trump, speaking from Florida, said he was unaware that the U.S. was behind on its commitments to the U.N. but he was sure he could “solve the problem very easily” and get other countries to pay — if only the U.N. would ask.
“If they came to Trump and told him, I’d get everybody to pay up, just like I got NATO to pay up,” he said, referring to himself in the third person. “All I have to do is call these countries… they would send checks within minutes.”
Trump’s comments follow a report in The New York Times that senior U.N. officials have warned the organization could be forced to scale back operations — or even shut its New York headquarters — if it runs out of cash.
Trump dismissed the idea out of hand.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate. The U.N. is not leaving New York, and it’s not leaving the United States, because the U.N. has tremendous potential,” Trump said, striking a protective tone toward an institution he has frequently attacked.
The U.N. declined to respond to Trump’s Sunday comments.
Trump’s remarks are notable for a president who has leaned into an “America First” doctrine, and in the last month captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, threatened to strike Iran and take Greenland from Danish control.
Trump has also retreated from numerous multilateral institutions in both his first and second terms. Most recently in January, he signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from 66 organizations, agencies and commissions, including the U.N.’s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations.
Last year, the Trump administration cut hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and dismantled USAID, and routinely portrayed international organizations as vehicles for other countries to take advantage of the United States.
Against that backdrop, Trump’s defense of the United Nations — at least in principle — is striking.
While he insisted the organization has failed to live up to its promise, he framed it as an institution that remains indispensable, particularly as his own role on the global stage eventually ends.
“When I’m no longer around to settle wars, the U.N. can,” he said, acknowledging that he won’t always be the one intervening in global conflicts. “It has tremendous potential. Tremendous.”
