Former national security adviser Mike Waltz pledged Tuesday to push for reform at the United Nations, portraying the body as bloated, ineffectual and overly politicized during his confirmation hearing to serve as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to international organization.
Echoing the administration’s approach to slashing the federal government, Waltz said that the administration was conducting a number of reviews of the United Nations to examine how it is spending its funds, calling for the body to refocus on its founding principles.
He also criticized the “radical politicization” of the body, citing U.N. reports about racism among U.S. law enforcement and the seizure of land from Native Americans.
“We should have one place in the world where everyone can talk,” said the former Republican representative from Florida. “But after 80 years, it’s drifted from its core mission of peacemaking.”
Waltz also vowed to push back against China at the U.N. amid Beijing’s rising influence at the global body.
The United States is the largest single financial contributor to the U.N., accounting for more than a quarter of its overall budget. Waltz indicated this could be used as leverage in pushing for reform.
“If you look at when reform has actually happened,” he said, “it is when the United States has said, ‘You know what, we need to actually see things before the U.S. taxpayer continues to write checks.’”
The administration is looking to cancel some $1 billion in federal funding to the U.N. as part of its rescission package, which seeks to claw back almost $10 billion in federal funds.
The Senate is set to vote on the measure as early as this week, bringing cuts to a world body already facing a deep financial crisis.
Waltz questioned the number of bodies at the U.N. that focus on climate change and environmental protection, including the U.N. Environment Program and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
At one point during the hearing, he read from a list of U.N. 455 entities that he claimed received U.S. funding and appeared to question their relevance.
Trump has said the U.N. needs to get its “act together” and has called on the body to focus on its “primary purpose” of conflict resolution, a view which was shared by Waltz on Tuesday.
Administration officials have been quick to criticize the organization, founded in the wake of World War II, though they have not outlined a clear vision on how to improve it.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) later quizzed Waltz on how the administration planned to reconcile its efforts to cut its contributions to the international body, while maintaining its influence.
“You’ve just waved here’s this great big list of organizations. Many of them do critical things,” Coons said.
Waltz’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee marked his first major public appearance since he stepped down as Trump’s national security advisor in May, having reportedly clashed with several senior officials over whether to pursue military strikes against Iran.
Democrats also used the hearing to tear into Waltz over his role in the Signalgate scandal, in which a journalist from The Atlantic was added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal where top administration officials discussed plans to launch air strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen. But the Democratic senators balanced that with queries about plans for the U.N. and the administration’s plans to check China’s influence.
Throughout the hearing, Waltz offered a sharp criticism of what he described as antisemitism at the U.N., citing a disproportionate number of resolutions passed against Israel in the General Assembly and reports that a number of staffers from the body’s Palestinian aid agency participated in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023.
Waltz said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency should be defunded and dismantled and that its humanitarian work handed over to other bodies.
A former Army Green Beret, Waltz’s initial appointment as national security adviser was greeted with a sigh of relief among allies and lawmakers on Capitol Hill who viewed him as an experienced foreign policy hand.
Democrats questioned Waltz at the hearing on the administration’s decision to dismantle USAID and the Global Engagement Center, a body within the State Department that sought to counter Russian and Chinese disinformation.
The role of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is the last of Trump’s Cabinet positions to be filled.
The president had initially tapped Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for the role, but withdrew her nomination in March in a bid to preserve the GOP’s thin majority in the House of Representatives.
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