President Donald Trump had a pretty hilarious reaction to the United Nations voting overwhelmingly against his declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot [of money].”
Referencing tomorrow's UN vote criticizing the US embassy move. In the words of the President, "Let them vote against us, we'll save a lot." pic.twitter.com/eUGWD4cCBR
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) December 20, 2017
The man has a point. After all, why the heck do we fund an organization that almost always votes against American interests, and almost exclusively targets our greatest ally (Israel) for condemnation? It’s not even a right-wing conspiracy that the U.N. harbors extreme bias against the nation of Israel. Just back in April all 100 members of the Senate signed a letter to the UN to end their “unacceptable” anti-Israel bias.
It didn’t take long for Trump’s words to turn into action, with our U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley announcing a $285 million cut in America’s contribution to the U.N.’s budget. That’s $35 million in cuts more than what one diplomat described as a “nearly impossible” amount to cut from their budget.
Just to give some context, as Unbiased America reported, this represents a 5% decrease in the U.N.’s overall budget. This follows a reduction of $600 million from the U.N.’s annual peacekeeping budget earlier this year, an 8% decrease. Both cuts came at the Trump Administration’s behest.
President Trump has objected to the U.N.’s bloated budget, which America pays a disproportionately large amount of. Fully 22% of the biennial regular budget of $5.4 billion and 28% of the annual peacekeeping budget of $7.8 billion are funded by dues assessed to the U.S. That’s more that 184 of the other 192 U.N. member states combined.
This, despite the fact that the U.S. accounts for 15% of the world’s GDP (after adjusting for differences in the cost-of-living among nations).
That’s a bit of a steep price to pay for an organization that doesn’t actually bother to vote in the interest of the goose that lays the golden egg (i.e. us), and an unacceptable one to pay for one that’s an enemy of American interests. Expect more cuts to follow.
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