Trump heads to annual UN meeting facing billions in unpaid dues
President Donald Trump will join world leaders for the United Nations’ annual gathering as one of the world body’s loudest critics - and biggest debtor.
The US has all but stopped paying its bills to the United Nations since Trump took office in January and still has outstanding arrears from 2024, according to the UN. Washington owes more than $3 billion - $826 billion owed as part of the 2025 regular budget assessment and the rest arrears for past years or unpaid peacekeeping commitments.
The financial delinquency tracks with a wider pullback from UN institutions such as the Human Rights Council and UNESCO, as well as a refusal to pay the bills with non-UN organizations such as NATO. Last week, Trump’s team announced it wouldn’t pay some $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities and $445 million in separately budgeted peacekeeping aid.
At the same time, Trump’s team has ramped up its criticism, including on Friday when a State Department spokesman called for the organization to “get back to basics, reorienting the organization to its origins as an effective tool for advancing peace.”
The Trump administration is “not putting its money where its mouth is,” Daniel Forti, a senior analyst for UN Advocacy and Research at the International Crisis Group, said in an interview. “It’s quite apparent to everyone at the UN, that the US’s diplomatic statements don’t match what they’re hearing about US budgeting figures.”
The UN’s budget for 2025 was more than $3.5 billion, with the US on the hook for 22%, or more than $800 million. In fiscal year 2023, the US paid $13 billion overall for that other groups and organizations that fall under the UN umbrella, such as the World Food Program, the UN Development Programme, and UNHCR.
Trump’s decision amounts to a reversion to a pattern that marked his first term, when he sought to withhold some funding. It could lead to a repeat of the late 1990s, when Senator Jesse Helms blocked US contributions as a push for the UN to enact reforms he wanted.
If Trump keeps refusing to pay up, the US could lose its vote in the UN General Assembly. The UN charter stipulates such a punishment for countries whose arrears exceed the amount they were supposed to pay the previous two years. Those countries currently include Afghanistan, Bolivia, Sao Tome and Principe and Venezuela.
Earlier this month, the White House announced it would use this year’s General Assembly gathering to push other countries to adopt more restrictions on asylum. Another topic Trump is sure to broach will be Israel’s war in Gaza, as several nations are planning to recognize a Palestinian state on the first day of the conference, and he is sure to defend his close ally.
With or without help from Washington, the UN is in trouble. In January, Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that the organization was undergoing a full-scale liquidity crisis, and is working to cut 19% of jobs in the 2026 fiscal year as well as reduce their revised program budget by about 15% to close to $3.24 billion, according to a letter from the Secretary General to UN Personnel. The UN peacekeeping workforce set to shrink by 13%.
On Thursday, Guterres proposed a plan to merge some UN institutions as well as other “efficiency measures” that might help the organization survive going forward. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he said UN peacekeeping was prepared to make drastic cuts if it needs to.
Guterres plans to meet Trump this week during the annual high-level gathering of the UN. He called it a “good opportunity to strengthen the cooperation between the United Nations and the US.”
“The relationship has always been a fundamental pillar of international relations,” he said.
It’s not at all clear that the US feels the same way. The White House has several plans for the 80th UN General Assembly High Level Week, from reforming the institution, to changing international asylum laws to defending Israel’s right to self-defense.
In an analysis of US funding for International Organizations, Charles Kenny, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, found that the Trump administration also hadn’t paid NATO or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“I don’t know how much worse relations between this administration and the UN could get,” Kenny said. “The administration wants to walk away from a lot of the UN family.”
The White House is still working on a 180-day review of the international organizations it will fund in the future. It remains possible that they make some last minute contributions before the end of the month or pay late using different funds.
“The money is sitting there,” Kenny said. “They seem to be making, at least, the active choice not to spend it.”