The Trump Administration intends to take a hard-nosed approach to one of the frustrating mysteries left behind by the Obama Administration: Just exactly how much money does the U.S. give to the United Nations, what is the money going for—and is it worth it? The Administration’s tough strategy is specifically aimed at reducing, rather than eliminating, U.S. support for the world organization and will not affect, at least in the short term, Washington’s current dues-paying commitment to pay 22 per cent of the U.N.’s so-called “regular” budget ($5.6 billion for 2016-2017) and 28.5 percent of its peacekeeping obligations ($7.9 billion) this year. But at the same time, the intent is clearly to hold the U.N.’s feet close to the fire on its value to U.S. goals and interests, as well as take special aim at organizations that offer full membership to the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or are heavily influenced by states that sponsor or support terrorism and/or systematically violate human rights. The methods for doing that include seeing what the organization has done with the money it has already received, finding ways to turn as much spending as feasible into voluntary rather than mandatory contributions—which the Administration would like to cut by 40 per cent—better sharing the international cost burden in the future, and making sure that U.S. contributions are “used in a manner consistent with their designated purpose.” Greater voluntary funding rather than automatic dues-paying has long been advocated by conservative reformers such as former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton..

And that makes sense!  This is an excellent first step in cutting back on the BILLIONS of hard-earned tax dollars that Americans send to this institution that doesn’t do a thing to further the national security, or economic, interests of the United States…and yet, we continue to just throw BILLIONS of dollars at it.  Kudos to the Trump administration for taking this action!