US pledges $2B for UN humanitarian aid as Trump slashes funding and
warns agencies to 'adapt or die'
[December 29, 2025]
By JAMEY KEATEN and MATTHEW LEE
GENEVA (AP) — The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge
for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration
continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations
agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities.
The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the
past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount
that will maintain the United States’ status as the world’s largest
humanitarian donor.
The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out
to individual agencies and priorities, a key part of U.S. demands for
drastic changes across the world body that have alarmed many
humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and
services.
The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding
for U.N.-backed programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually
in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8-$10
billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States
also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.
Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven
millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft
power around the world.
A year of crisis in aid
The move caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations like its
refugee, migration and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has
already cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting them to slash
spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional Western
donors have reduced outlays, too.
The announced U.S. pledge for aid programs of the United Nations — the
world’s top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of
U.S. humanitarian aid money — takes shape in a preliminary deal with the
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, run
by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.
Even as the U.S. pulls back its aid, needs have ballooned across the
world: Famine has been recorded this year in parts of conflict-ridden
Sudan and Gaza, and floods, drought and natural disasters that many
scientists attribute to climate change have taken many lives or driven
thousands from their homes.
The cuts will have major implications for U.N. affiliates like the
International Organization for Migration, the World Food Program and
refugee agency UNHCR. They have already received billions less from the
U.S. this year than under annual allocations from the previous Biden
administration — or even during Trump’s first term.
Now, the idea is that Fletcher’s office — which last year set in motion
a “humanitarian reset” to improve efficiency, accountability and
effectiveness of money spent — will become a funnel for U.S. and other
aid money that can be then redirected to those agencies, rather than
scattered U.S. contributions to a variety of individual appeals for aid.
US seeks aid consolidation
The United States wants to see “more consolidated leadership authority”
in U.N. aid delivery systems, said a senior State Department official,
speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details before the
announcement at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva.
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A woman and her children, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude
earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar
province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP
Photo/Nava Jamshidi, File)
Under the plan, Fletcher and his coordination office “are going to
control the spigot” on how money is distributed to agencies, the
official said.
“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more
aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven
assistance aligned with U.S foreign policy,” said U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations Michael Waltz.
U.S. officials say the $2 billion is just a first outlay to help
fund OCHA’s annual appeal for money, announced earlier this month.
Fletcher, noting the upended aid landscape, already slashed the
request this year. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain,
France, Germany and Japan have reduced aid allocations and sought
reforms this year.
“The agreement requires the U.N. to consolidate humanitarian
functions to reduce bureaucratic overhead, unnecessary duplication,
and ideological creep,” the State Department said in a statement.
“Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.”
“Nowhere is reform more important than the humanitarian agencies,
which perform some of the U.N.’s most critical work,” the department
added. “Today’s agreement is a critical step in those reform
efforts, balancing President Trump’s commitment to remaining the
world’s most generous nation, with the imperative to bring reform to
the way we fund, oversee, and integrate with U.N. humanitarian
efforts.”
At its core, the reform project will help establish pools of funding
that can be directed either to specific crises or countries in need.
A total of 17 countries will be targeted initially, including
Bangladesh, Congo, Haiti, Syria and Ukraine.
One of the world’s most desperate countries, Afghanistan, is not
included, nor are the Palestinian territories, which officials say
will be covered by money stemming from Trump’s as-yet-incomplete
Gaza peace plan.
The project, months in the making, stems from Trump’s longtime view
that the world body has great promise, but has failed to live up to
it, and has — in his eyes — drifted too far from its original
mandate to save lives while undermining American interests,
promoting radical ideologies and encouraging wasteful, unaccountable
spending.
Fletcher praised the deal, saying in a statement, “At a moment of
immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is
a humanitarian superpower, offering hope to people who have lost
everything.”
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Lee reported from Washington.
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