OPINION:
Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a recent Fox Business interview that the United States was going to continue to withhold money to the global entity because of its many malfunctions of services curiously timed to the speech from President Donald Trump to the General Assembly.
That’s good. Even better: Turn off the lights and air conditioning at the New York building. Let the global elites work for a while in hot, sweaty darkness. And then to add insult to injury, do a ‘lights? What lights’ shoulder shrug.
That’s the treatment America just received from the United Nations.
As Trump and First Lady Melania made their way to the floor for the president’s U.N. speech, the escalator came to a dead stop. As Trump stood at the podium to being his remarks, the teleprompter failed. As Trump went forth with his remarks and addressed the General Assembly audience — and the watching world — his microphone cut and the sound in the auditorium died. As the audio resumed and Trump continued speaking, the broadcast momentarily switched to Portuguese, then returned to English.
It wasn’t just a face slap to the president.
It was a face slap to the country the president represents: America.
“The whole thing is unacceptable. The whole thing stinks. There’re 150 world leaders there and this only happens to him not once, not twice, but three times,” Waltz said.
It’s not just “insulting,” Waltz added. It’s “incredibly serious,” he added, of the security risks that come with certain malfunctions.
Trump called it “sabotage.” And no doubt, it was. The United Nations, after all, is no friend of America’s. The global entity happily takes — demands — U.S. dollars. But when it comes to advancing U.S. interests, including those of U.S. allies like Israel, the United Nations does not so happily stand in line.
In other words: The United Nations is quite content to bite the hands that feed.
This White House ain’t playing that.
“We’ve withheld [U.N. funding] this year,” Waltz said. “We haven’t paid any and my first meeting with the secretary general was, ‘here are the reforms that we need to see before you start talking about taxpayer dollars.’”
This is the only way to make the elitist leftists at the United Nations pay attention.
Speak to them on principle — and they turn deaf ears. They have no principle. Speak to them on moral grounds — and they ignore. Their morals are rooted upon ungodly, antisemitic, communist grounds. Speak to them in dollars and cents, though — threaten to withhold funding, though — threaten to cut funds and follow through on actual cuts to funds, though — and boy, that grabs their attention.
The Council on Foreign Relations reported this September that the United States “remains the largest donor to the United Nations. In 2025, [the U.S.] was responsible for 22 percent of the U.N. regular budget, which finances the day-to-day operations of the organization and its primary activities, and approximately 26 percent of the U.S. peacekeeping budget.”
Meanwhile, as of April 30, unpaid U.N. assessments have hit the $2.4 billion mark. Of that, U.S. withheld contributions came to about $1.5 billion. Taxpayers can thank Team Trump for the savings. Trump’s push for transparency and accountability is resulting in real fiscal responsibility for the American taxpayer — and a real shortfall for the United Nations.
Under Trump, America has pulled from the World Health Organization, and the Human Rights Council, and the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, and will pull from UNESCO — the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — by the end of 2026. More savings, more savings, more savings. More to come.
Waltz is warning more cuts are on the way, unless the U.N. leadership enact serious reforms — beginning with accountability for the saboteurs of Trump’s recent General Assembly talk.
Oh, my, United Nations. Too bad, so sad.
But thing is, America doesn’t need the United Nations.
The United Nations, however, very desperately, very significantly, very genuinely needs America — or more to point, America’s dollars. If its wants them — then it better stop ‘dissing our president and First Lady, disrespecting our country, denying respect to our allies and disregarding our Constitution, our laws and orders, our concept of individual rights and God-given freedoms.
‘Lights out’ could very well, under this president, turn into ‘get out.’ And America would be none the worse for it.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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