Trump Administration Says UN Budget Cuts Top $1B as Reform Effort Gains Steam

UNITED NATIONS — The Trump administration is pointing to a major financial shift at the United Nations, saying it has helped deliver more than $1 billion in budget reductions over the past six months and arguing the cuts show a global body often criticized as slow to change is now being pushed toward meaningful reform.

The newest round of savings was approved on June 30, when all 193 U.N. member nations signed off on a peacekeeping budget of about $5.1 billion for the next fiscal year. That figure represents a decrease of roughly $550 million, or 9.7%, compared with the prior year.

U.S. officials say that, when added to the 15% cut to the U.N.’s regular budget adopted in December, the reductions now exceed $1 billion across assessed U.N. budgets — a scale of savings they are describing as historic.

Assessed budgets are financed through required payments from U.N. member states, calculated under a formula tied largely to the size and strength of each country’s economy.

“On June 30th, with U.S. leadership, all 193 countries came together again for the second time in six months,” Jeff Bartos, the U.S. ambassador for U.N. management and reform, told INC 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 budget agreement arrives at a pivotal moment for the United Nations, which is confronting growing financial strain while also looking ahead to a leadership change in 2027, when Secretary-General António Guterres is scheduled to conclude his second term. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has made U.N. reform a key part of its foreign policy approach, contending that the institution has become too bureaucratic, costly and inefficient.

Responding to questions from INC News, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed that the peacekeeping budget had been cut by about $550 million and that the regular budget had been reduced by 15%, calling both moves “unprecedented reductions.”

Bartos argues the reforms reflect sustained pressure from the Trump administration and months of negotiations led by the U.S. Mission.

“The new budget, this reformed budget, the enhanced efficiency changes the culture of how the U.N. looks at peacekeeping,” Bartos said. “Every dollar has to achieve impact on the ground.”

He pointed to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan as an example, saying the United States worked to streamline the mission’s mandate before reducing its budget accordingly.

Another reform highlighted by the administration changes how the U.N. handles unused budget credits.

Until now, U.N. financial rules required the organization to return unspent funds to member states even if those contributions had never actually been paid, a practice critics said worsened the organization’s recurring liquidity crisis.

The General Assembly voted on June 30 to introduce, on a four-year trial basis, a new methodology under which unspent funds will be returned only when backed by cash actually received.

Bartos said the change could save the organization more than $1 billion over the next three years. That projected figure is separate from the more than $1 billion in budget reductions already approved over the past six months.

He called the change another example of “common-sense” reform and said it could save the organization more than $1 billion over the next three years.

The United Nations likewise welcomed the change, though officials noted it had been a longstanding priority of Secretary-General António Guterres.

“I have been pushing for this reform for almost a decade,” Guterres said after the vote. He described the previous system as a “Kafkaesque cycle” in which the organization was expected “to give back cash that did not exist.”

Dujarric said the reform would allow the U.N. to manage resources “in a more predictable and responsible way” while helping ensure operational continuity, particularly for peacekeeping missions.

Bartos insists the latest budget agreements are only the beginning.

Among the administration’s next priorities are reforms to staff compensation, employee benefits and the U.N. pension system, areas he argues consume resources that could otherwise support humanitarian operations and peacekeeping missions.

“We’re going to continue to see us push whether it’s on benefits, whether it’s on staff compensation, whether it’s on the pension system,” Bartos said. “There’s massive numbers of additional reforms that our team is working on right now.”

He also suggested reform will remain a central issue as member states begin selecting the next secretary-general.

“We’re going to select the next secretary-general,” Bartos said. “That reform momentum that has been growing over the last 15, 18 months … you’ll see that continuing in 2027 with the new secretary-general.”