The United Nations, anticipating that President Trump will slash U.S. contributions to the global body, has told its departments to draw up plans for budget cuts, including through staff relocations from New York and Geneva to less-expensive cities.
The instructions — outlined in a two-page memo dated April 25 that was reviewed by The New York Times — were sent from Secretary General António Guterres’s office to the heads of all agencies that report directly to him. The memo set a May 15 deadline for all proposals so that they could be added to the 2026 budget.
“Your objective is to identify as many functions as possible that could be relocated to existing lower-cost locations,” the memo reads, “or otherwise reduced or abolished if they are duplicative or no longer viable.”
In February, President Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of the overall U.S. funding and ties to the U.N. He withdrew the United States from several U.N. organizations, including those dealing with human rights, women’s reproductive rights, climate change, Palestinian aid and global health. In his first term, he also reduced U.S. contributions to peacekeeping efforts.
Three senior U.N. officials said on Tuesday that the drastic, cost-cutting measures laid out in the memo had caught the agency’s departments by surprise and went beyond what they had expected. The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the directive was largely viewed as a way for the U.N. to brace for potential additional cuts by Mr. Trump and to proactively insulate it from the financial blow.
But the U.N. officials said the budget cuts were ordered only partly in response to Mr. Trump’s moves. The directive comes as the U.N. is adjusting to a host of financial problems, they said, from the withdrawal and reduction in financial contributions by major donors like the United States and Europe to a cash-flow crisis caused by member states’ not paying their annual dues on time and in full.
Mr. Guterres announced on March 12 that he was launching an initiative called UN80 — named for the organization’s 80th anniversary — to create cost-effective measures and improve efficiency across the organization.
“These are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability,” Mr. Guterres said at the time. “Resources are shrinking across the board — and they have been for a long time.”
He also said that a reduction in funding from the United States and other countries had “naturally led to the need by the agencies that deliver those services to reduce staff, to shrink their dimension and to eliminate many activities.”
Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the April 25 memo had resulted from the UN80 initiative.
Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, said that while the U.N. was portraying the moves as an internal overhaul, in reality, they had resulted from pressure by and anxiety about the Trump administration.
“The U.S. cuts, the range of the cuts and scale of the cuts have really shocked the U.N.,” Mr. Gowan said in an interview. “So Guterres is now frankly racing to catch up with a very bad situation.”
The United States is the largest contributor to the U.N., accounting for nearly 25 percent of its overall budget, which in 2024 amounted to about $3.6 billion and went toward administrative and peacekeeping needs. America is also a major donor to various U.N. agencies for humanitarian relief work; in 2022, the United States contributed about $18 billion to the U.N. across the board.
Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden also have announced deep cuts in international aid, including to the U.N., in order to focus on domestic needs and defense priorities. China, a major contributor to the U.N., has traditionally stepped up funding toward programs that align with its own interests, like peacekeeping.
Now, the U.N. estimates it would face a 20 percent budget reduction for 2026 as a result of funding cuts, according to Mr. Gowan, which would amount to billions of dollars in losses.
Some agencies, including UNICEF and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said they had already begun cost-cutting reviews separate from the Guterres directive.
A senior official at UNICEF said the agency was anticipating at least a 20 percent budget decrease for 2026. UNICEF is also considering relocating a sizable portion of its staff to Valencia, Spain, from New York, the senior official said. The goal, he added, was to ensure any budget shortfall would have as little effect as possible on programs that serve children.
UNICEF is funded through donations from member states, the private sector and individuals. It does not receive money from the U.N.’s overall budget.
Even before the memo was sent, Mr. Guterres said last month that the U.N.’s Population Fund, which focuses on women’s health and reproductive rights, would move its entire operation to Nairobi, Kenya, from New York.
Tom Fletcher, the U.N.’s top humanitarian chief, also announced to staff this month that the agency was scaling back its operations in several countries;, maintaining a hiring freeze and travel restrictions; and reducing staff by 20 percent.
Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization, and also covers Iran and the shadow war between Iran and Israel. She is based in New York.
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