The U.N. Deserves A Trumpian Reckoning

For years, the United Nations has been dining out on a reputation built in the heady days following the end of World War II, when it was created to save future generations from the scourge of war, promote human rights and fundamental freedoms, advance economic development and higher standards of living, and promote comity among nations. There have been successes over the past 80 years, such as the elimination of smallpox, but they are shockingly rare considering the resources and respect the U.N. commands.

Today, September 23, Donald Trump will take the podium before the United Nations General Assembly for the fifth time. In previous speeches, he called out the organization for underperforming, whether on its failure to address Iran’s nuclear weapons program, bias in the International Criminal Court, or the unwillingness of the World Health Organization to condemn China for its lack of transparency and cooperation that made the Covid pandemic much more costly.

In this speech, the president will likely again highlight the failures of the multilateral system. At the same time, he should outline a new U.S. relationship with the United Nations — a selective approach that funds what works and abandons the wide swaths of the world body and its satellites that do not.

The world is awash in threats to international peace and security. Yet, the U.N. is paralyzed, unable to effectively deter Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, China’s assaults on Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea, or Al-Qaeda’s march across Africa. The rise of rogue states, proliferation of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles, mass migration, drug trafficking, and global terrorism — all are on the U.N. agenda, but tangible progress in effectively addressing these threats is largely absent.