The money will be allocated over the coming year and adds to the $2 billion that the Trump administration pledged in December. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said at a press conference that the new funding is just “the latest step.”
The money is a fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what President Donald Trump's administration believes is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.
The Trump administration has cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting U.N. agencies to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan also have reduced aid allocations.
U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called his agency “overstretched, underresourced and literally under attack” and reiterated its 2026 plan to reach 87 million of the world’s most needy at a cost of $23 billion — even though 300 million people need humanitarian help.
Before Waltz’s announcement, he said, the U.N. had raised about $7.4 billion. He called the United States “the single largest national donor” to the United Nations.
Waltz slammed what he called a narrative in the media that the U.S. has walked away from helping people in need, saying it's "absolutely false.”
Under Trump, the U.S. has been taking a more narrowed approach to paying dues to the United Nations, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and avoiding those that no longer serve U.S. interests. The State Department has said “individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.”
