A recent undercover video showing a United Nations legal affairs employee saying the world body is scared of a Trump presidency is shining a new spotlight on Trump’s policy toward many of the U.N.’s scandal-plagued agencies.
The U.N. Office of Legal Affairs official was recorded on an undercover video stating, “I’m not sure the United Nations as an institution is going to survive a second term by Trump.” The Louder with Crowder podcast conducted the undercover recording and first disclosed it.
While the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment, as president he was viewed as being very tough on the world body by taking an aggressive posture against U.N. corruption, anti-Americanism and antisemitism while pushing American interests.
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U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters on September 24, 2019, in New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Trump stopped funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Fox News Digital reported in August that the U.N. had been forced to fire nine UNRWA employees over likely involvement in the Hamas massacre on October 7 of nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel, including over 30 Americans.
Trump withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council; the U.N.’s World Health Organization; the U.N.’s cultural organization UNESCO; and the Paris climate agreement.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson for Trump said at the time the decision “reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO.”
Biden quickly rejoined the U.N. bodies, including the Paris climate deal, that Trump walked away from during his term. However, Biden suspended funds for UNRWA after its role in the Hamas terrorist attack was exposed by Israel.
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Photos released by the Israeli Defense Force show three individuals that the Israeli military claims are Hamas combatants inside the UNRWA compound in Rafah. (IDF)
In 2021, former Trump U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned the White House about rejoining the Human Rights Council, because it is influenced by communist totalitarian regimes like China and Cuba, to name just a few.
“If President Biden truly cared about human rights, he would keep us far away from the cesspool that is the U.N. Human Rights Council,” said Haley at the time.
A senior Republican Congressional staffer who works on international affairs told Fox News Digital, “There are a list of things that are standard Republican positions now, which will happen immediately after President Trump reenters the White House, along with policies that he pursued in his first term which he will re-implement.”
The staffer continued that “First and foremost, they will withdraw the U.S. from participating in the anti-American, antisemitic organizations across the United Nations that the Biden-Harris administration has been engaging and funding. They will also order our diplomats to start pushing back against international policies that undermine our interests, instead of trying to implement them the way the Biden-Harris have been doing.”
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The United Nations building is pictured in New York City, U.S., February 23, 2023. (Reuters/Mike Segar/File Photo)
When asked about the staff member’s comment, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General, referred Fox News Digital to his comments at his recent press briefing. He said, “The gentleman you refer to is not a senior U.N. official. He is a junior staffer. From looking at the video, his comments were recorded in what seemed to be in a restaurant private setting without his knowledge. He was not speaking on behalf of the Organization in any way, shape or form.”
He added, “But I will just state for a fact that this is not–you know, when someone is recorded without their knowledge in a private setting, I don’t think any good journalist could interpret it as being the official position of the United Nations.”
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital, “So the U.N. gets caught weighing in on the U.S. election vehemently against Trump and the response is, “Who, me?” she added, “Today’s U.N. has forsaken its original purpose and threatens American fundamental rights and freedoms. One side of the American political spectrum tolerates America-bashing and Israel-hating under the guise of a phantom global messiah, and the other side gets it. Of course, the U.N. is afraid that Americans will get it, too.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at the High-Level Segment of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 26, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Bayefsky concluded, “Obviously the U.N. has a mutual love affair with Democrats: Obama went to the Security Council to adopt the far-reaching and catastrophic Iran deal before bothering to ask Congress; Obama-Harris-Biden joined and legitimized the U.N. ‘Human Rights’ Council – home base for despots and antisemites looking to burnish their human rights credentials while Trump withdrew from it; Obama-Harris-Biden support UNRWA while Trump said no more money for the fake Palestinian U.N. ‘refugee’ agency perpetuating the Arab-Israeli conflict; Obama-Harris-Biden have used the Security Council to bludgeon Israel with resolutions that have never condemned Hamas while Trump repeatedly rejected U.N. ploys to do an end run around American and Israeli sovereignty.”
Later this month, the United Nations will host world leaders for the annual General Assembly debate where some of the globe’s most despotic regimes will get to address the world body.