Credit: WMO/Karolin Eichier. UN News
By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Feb 5 2025 – In less than two weeks in office, Trump issued scores of reckless executive orders that ironically will gravely undermine rather than enhance his “America First” agenda and America’s global leadership.
Millions of Americans expected Trump to go rogue once he reassumed the presidency, but much fewer expected him to issue scores of reckless and damaging executive orders so swiftly.
Pulling the US out of several United Nations agencies and threatening to take over the Panama Canal and acquire by force, if necessary, Denmark’s autonomous territory Greenland are some of the most outrageous plans that would severely undermine his “America First” agenda instead of serving its best interests globally and domestically.
It is hard to imagine what will happen to America in a year or two if Congressional Republicans don’t wake up and prevent him from pursuing this perilous agenda. They can put America first only by maintaining global involvement, exerting leadership, and having a say at the table instead of relinquishing its role and responsibility to Russia and China, who would happily jump at every opportunity to undermine America’s national interest.
What Trump fails to grasp is that the UN, despite its inflated bureaucracy and the failure of some of its agencies to adapt to changing global circumstances, still plays a critical role in international affairs, where the US has taken the lead and from which the US directly benefited.
Moreover, Trump and his benighted advisors appear oblivious to the importance of the UN as the only international organization that endeavors, among other things, to maintain international peace and security, protect human rights, promote international cooperation, and provide badly needed humanitarian assistance.
Indeed, despite its inadequacies in various areas, the UN remains indispensable. Trump, ‘the fixer,’ should help fix various agencies’ inadequacies, not by defunding their essential work but by taking the lead and working with other countries to make these agencies proficient and effective. This certainly is in the best interest of the US and only complements his America First agenda.
Several UN agencies are targeted for defunding because Trump broadly accuses them of corruption and resource waste. Again, it is inexplicable how these agencies, regardless of their shortcomings, are targeted for defunding when they provide critical services that the global community needs.
The World Health Organization (WHO), founded in 1948, protects global health. Among many of its critically important functions, WHO anticipates and responds to global health emergencies, including worldwide pandemics like COVID-19.
It also works to eliminate contagious diseases, having eradicated smallpox in 1980. Moreover, the organization establishes international health standards and monitors global health trends through research and data collection to steer evidence-based health policy.
How on earth would defunding it serve the notion of America first if the US will have no say in its operation? Diseases don’t stay neatly contained within borders, and leaving the world’s largest collaborative public health body will leave the US the last to know when deadly contagions are spreading.
The UN Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body responsible for promoting and protecting global human rights. The US withdrew in June 2018 under Trump but announced a re-engagement in 2021 under Biden. The US has had a complicated relationship with this body under various presidents, mainly due to US accusations that the body has been and still is anti-Israel.
In addition, some member states in this agency are committing human rights violations in their own countries, which undermines their credibility as the guardian of human rights. Again, human rights are sacrosanct; any contribution to guarding them is needed.
The US, which has championed human rights, should always be at the forefront and address what’s wrong with this important agency rather than defunding it and letting China and Russia influence its focus and direction.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is another agency Trump wants to punish. This indispensable agency seeks to bring peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture and protects the world’s physical and intangible heritage.
Here again, the US withdrew from UNESCO under Trump in 2019, primarily citing the organization’s alleged anti-Israel bias but also because of mounting arrears and the need for fundamental reforms.
The US rejoined in 2023 under Biden because he recognized its importance, which made up for its deficiencies. Trump’s withdrawal from this agency does not serve his America First agenda, especially when the US’ concerns and interests are ignored, and its contribution is no longer sought out.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides assistance and protection for registered Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. Trump cut funding in 2018; Biden restored it in 2021, but Congress passed a one-year ban on UNRWA funding until March 25, 2025.
There is no doubt that this nearly eight-decades-old organization is heavy on bureaucracy and short on efficiency, and a small number of its operatives in Gaza were found guilty of aiding Hamas in its attack against Israel. Nevertheless, it still renders essential services, which, at present, are more needed than ever.
Yes, significant reorganization and streamlining of its operation is absolutely necessary, but that cannot be fixed without the US’ direct involvement. By abandoning UNRWA, the US is abdicating its leadership role in finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Indeed, many involved in the process have explicitly said that, and if anything, now that the war in Gaza is still raging and the Palestinian refugees are in a dire situation, American leadership is needed more than ever before.
The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, aims to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Developed countries are asked to provide financial assistance to less developed ones to meet climate goals.
Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement in his first term and is doing it again. The belief of most Republicans that there is no such thing as climate change, against the overwhelming evidence, is nothing short of a travesty.
But then, leave it to the willfully ignorant to dismiss the unprecedented storms, hurricanes, fires, rising sea levels, and temperature because they refuse to see reality. Sadly, withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is also tied to Trump’s desire to expand US fossil fuel production, which has a significant adverse environmental impact on the US just as much, if not more, than other countries.
Territorial ambition
Not only Democrats but also many of Trump’s supporters are baffled by his arbitrary decision to take another country’s territory by force if he “has to,” such as Greenland and the Panama Canal, which is outrageous to even think about. Is there one single sane Trump advisor who can tell him that what he is thinking is a gross violation of international law, to unilaterally decide to take over any land that belongs to other countries?
In addition, it is terrifying other countries, creating a dreadful feeling about what the United States represents and the harm it can inflict at this point on other states. To suggest that the US can unilaterally take land from a UN member state, or worse yet, in the case of Greenland, a NATO member state is nothing short of folly—to take by force land from one’s allies.
The US is committed to upholding territorial integrity, and to think that Trump can just take over the Panama Canal and invade Denmark’s territory is the highest of absurdity.
Sadly, with the new Trump administration entering a second term, not only does the UN face an exceptionally hostile White House, but even many of the US’ friends and allies are bewildered and greatly concerned about what he might do next. They fear that nothing good will come out of this Trump administration and are bracing for the worst.
Trump must remember that America First is best served when America is respected, not feared.
Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
IPS UN Bureau
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