A recent secretly filmed video showing a UN legal official saying the UN is afraid of President Trump has drawn new attention to Trump's policies toward many of the scandal-plagued UN agencies.
“We don't know if the UN as an institution can survive a second Trump term,” a UN legal official said in a secretly recorded video made and shown for the first time by the podcast “Louder with Crowder.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but as president, Trump has been seen as taking a very tough stance on the United Nations, taking an aggressive stance against corruption, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism at the UN while advancing US interests.
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U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2019. (Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
President Trump has suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Fox News Digital reported in August that the UN was forced to fire nine UNRWA staff members for their alleged involvement in the October 7 Hamas massacre of about 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, in southern Israel.
Trump has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN's World Health Organization, UNESCO, the UN's cultural agency, and the Paris Climate Accord.
At the time, a State Department spokesman for President Trump said the decision “reflects U.S. concerns about UNESCO's growing arrears, the need for fundamental reform of the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO.”
Biden quickly rejoined UN agencies that Trump withdrew from during his term, including the Paris climate change accord, but he cut off funding to UNRWA after Israel exposed its role in Hamas-run terror attacks.
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A photo released by the Israel Defense Forces showed three people whom the Israeli military said were Hamas fighters inside the UNRWA compound in Rafah. (Israel Defense Forces)
In 2021, President Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned the White House about rejoining the Human Rights Council because it is influenced by communist totalitarian regimes such as China and Cuba.
“If President Biden truly cares about human rights, he would keep us out of the cesspool that is the UN Human Rights Council,” Haley said at the time.
“There is a list of things that are now standard Republican positions that will be implemented immediately upon President Trump's return to the White House, and there will also be a re-implementation of policies that he pursued during his first term,” a senior Republican congressman over international affairs told Fox News Digital.
The staff member continued, “First, he will withdraw U.S. participation in anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations at the United Nations that the Biden-Harris Administration has been involved with and funded. He will also order U.S. diplomats to oppose international policies that harm U.S. interests, rather than attempting to implement international policies that harm U.S. interests in the way that the Biden-Harris Administration has done.”
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A photo is taken at the United Nations Building in New York City, USA on February 23, 2023. (Reuters/Mike Seeger/File Photo)
When asked about Paoletti's comments, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Fox News Digital he was referring to comments made by Paoletti at a recent press conference: “The man you are referring to is not a senior UN official. He is a junior staff member. His comments appear to have been recorded in the privacy of a restaurant, without his consent. He was not speaking on behalf of the UN in any way.”
He added: “But I can categorically say that this is not the case. You know, I don't think any savvy journalist could interpret an audio recording made in a private setting without the person's consent as an official UN statement.”
Anne Bayefsky, executive director of Human Rights Voice, told Fox News Digital: “When the UN judges the US election vigorously against Trump, the reaction is 'me?' The UN has abandoned its purpose and is threatening fundamental American rights and freedoms. One side of the US political spectrum tolerates US-bashing and Israel-hatred under the guise of an illusory global savior, while the other side gets it. And of course the UN fears that Americans get it too.”
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke at the high-level segment of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on 26 February 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Bayefsky concludes: “Clearly the UN is a Democratic love interest. Obama passed the far-reaching and disastrous Iran nuclear deal in the Security Council before it even reached Congress. Obama, Harris and Biden sat on and asserted legitimacy in the UN 'Human Rights' Council, home to dictators and anti-Semites looking to assert their human rights authority, from which Trump withdrew. Obama, Harris and Biden supported UNRWA, while Trump said he would no longer fund the fake Palestinian UN 'refugee' agency that perpetuates the Arab-Israeli conflict. Obama, Harris and Biden used the Security Council to scathingly criticize Israel in resolutions that never condemned Hamas, while Trump repeatedly rejected UN maneuvers to circumvent US and Israeli sovereignty.”
Later this month, the United Nations will host world leaders for its annual General Assembly debate, which will see some of the world's most authoritarian regimes address the global body.
