US pledges $2B for UN humanitarian aid as Trump slashes funding and warns agencies to 'adapt or die'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 12:10 AM EST, December 29, 2025


GENEVA (AP) — The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities. The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount that will maintain the United States’ status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to individual agencies and priorities, a key part of U.S. demands for drastic changes across the world body that have alarmed many humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and services.

The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding for U.N.-backed programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8-$10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.

Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-humanitarian-ocha-fletcher-united-nations-f32b1238acfdf6f44f61e991f8a5b8bc

[DemMedic]

1. You will have nothing and like it....

Peasants!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Guess the US isn't going to lead the world anymore. Just use its money and might to take things.

[Hugin]

3. What was it, around forty billion to Argentina?

Two for the UN.

[Igel]

6. Nobody actually knows what the "swap" consisted of.

$20B was private funding but the scant reports afterwards say that the banks backed away and may have gone for a much smaller loan. And that's where that stands, apart from speculation and political rhetoric as to how it's good or bad. Notice there's no claim (at least that I've seen) that they did go for a smaller loan given the lack of evidence that would support such a claim. That lack of evidence extends to any claim that they did, in fact, go through with the larger $20B deal. That may is really important here, pointing to the 'lack of evidence' bit.

Transparent the process was not.

The Exchange Stabilization Fund $20B was at least partly a peso purchase (although how many billions of dollars of pesos were bought is unstated, with estimates being around $2B ... But those are estimates in the absence of a lot of actual, you know, information and maybe it was the $20B that many assume given the lack of evidence). But it was also, given what was originally said about it, just 'made available' to guarantee that AR had access to $. How much of it's been used ... Again ... Congress has asked for the info and gotten pretty much no information and so all that's left is speculation and political rhetoric. That's fine, as long as the speaker knows the difference between those and fact (and doesn't try to convince the listener that the speculation is fact).

I, for one, would like to actually know what the current status of the ESF monies are, esp. if "we've" bought a crapload of pesos even as Milei is trying to devalue what most say is an overvalued peso. (Then again, already a year ago a lot of economists were saying that the $ was overvalued, I've seen how they made that kind of judgment but I don't know that the 'how' really explains the 'what'--if it's a valid measure of 'under', 'over' or 'right' valuation.)

As for the private deal, unless there's some sort of government guarantee that they'll not lose money (or, even worse, are guaranteed a profit), meh--they takes their risks, they gets their consequences.

[Hugin]

7. Thanks for the precise razor sharp analysis.

I was basing my claim on what the media says Trump said, y’know… hearsay.

Anyway, reading through your breakdown has made me wonder if it was some sort of a transaction involving crypto. The crypto bros have been trying hard to find a way to base a national currency on crypto. I believe it was tried in some Central American country with no success. I suppose this could be another type of attempt.

[mahina]

4. Our country is destroying people at an unimaginable scale.

💧💔

[WestMichRad]

5. Wonder what conditions they'll attach to the aid.

This administration will attempt to extract something in exchange for aid. It’s how they roll.