“In America, the impossible is what we do best.”
Those were President Donald Trump’s inspiring words in his second inaugural address — and when we took up our posts at the US Mission to the United Nations a few months later, we put the president’s words into action.
For decades, reforming the UN was considered near impossible.
Yet on Dec. 30, the United States led the United Nations General Assembly to do something it had never done in its 80-year history: Adopt a budget that actually cut its outlays, by $570 million, and eliminated thousands of posts from its bloated bureaucracy.
The president’s vision and leadership made this unprecedented reform possible.
The United States has been by far the largest contributor to the United Nations throughout its history — providing more of the UN’s regular budget than the combined contributions of 180-plus other member countries.
So member nations sat up and took notice last year when President Trump, soon after his inauguration, declared that the United States would cut off its UN contributions totally unless and until it enacted meaningful reforms.
And while UN members had heard many American presidents, from both parties, talk about reform with little follow-through, they knew that this president and his administration say what they mean and mean what they say.
During our confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last July, we discussed the urgent need for change at the UN, streamlining its bureaucracy and eliminating duplication to make it more focused and effective.
Senators noted the huge challenge of reforming an organization of 193 member states, each with different priorities — and each with an equal vote, no matter how much or how little they contribute to the UN’s budget.
Live up to potential
We told them that we believed reform was achievable thanks to President Trump, who had opened a unique window of opportunity for achieving consequential and durable change.
Soon after the Senate confirmed us in September, President Trump spoke to an overflow crowd at the United Nations General Assembly.
“The UN has such tremendous potential, but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” he told the gathered diplomats and heads of state.
Our team heard the president loud and clear.
For the next 100 days, we worked to deliver the consequential reforms that he demanded and the American people deserve.
UN budget negotiations take place among blocks of countries, with the United States in the leadership role.
We have the ability to set the agenda, and also to bring together UN leadership and member states to forge agreements.
Over long days and nights, the US team rallied the UN secretary-general to support needed compromises, and tempered demands from various countries to allow the budget to pass by consensus — that is, by agreement among all 193 countries.
We did it through the hard work of diplomacy, of lengthy conversations sharing viewpoints and priorities.
Our efforts showed that all 193 member nations support President Trump’s challenge to the UN to realize its potential.
What did we achieve in those 100 days?
For the first time in its 80-year history, the United Nations cut its budget substantially, by $570 million.
We eliminated 2,900 unnecessary bureaucratic posts.
We repatriated thousands of peacekeepers and cut hundreds of millions from the peacekeeping budget.
Peace and security
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted the president’s historic 20-point peace plan for Gaza and unanimously supported a historic Gang Suppression Force in Haiti.
These consequential reforms create a more focused, effective United Nations fit for purpose — and put the UN firmly on the path to get back to basics of maintaining international peace and security.
Now, we must ensure that reform is not a one-time exercise.
Over the next year, we plan to enact long-overdue, commonsense changes to the UN’s employee compensation system and pension plan, streamline the UN’s peacekeeping missions, and halt the waste, fraud and abuse that’s undermining UN effectiveness.
Every day when we walk into the building, we think about President Trump’s challenge to the United Nations to realize its great potential.
It is the one place in the world where everyone can talk — and we want that place to be right here in the United States.
We’re dedicated to the hard work of making the UN live up to its promise.
Ambassador Mike Waltz is the US permanent representative to the United Nations. Ambassador Jeff Bartos serves as the US representative for UN management and reform.
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