US President Donald Trump attends a meeting about healthcare in the Roosevelt Room at the White House CREDIT: AFP The first details could come on Thursday when the White House will unveil its budget for the year ahead.
Mr Trump is expected to detail billions of dollars in savings to pay for his plan to expand the armed forces without raising taxes.
State Department officials have been told to find cuts of more than 50 per cent in payments to UN programmes, according to a report in Foreign Policy.
State Department officials have been told to find cuts of more than 50 per cent in payments to UN programmes, according to a report in Foreign Policy.
Diplomats have been told to brace themselves to expect cuts.
At present the US pays about $10 billion to the UN, made up of its compulsory dues and payments to individuals agencies, funds and programmes, such as peacekeeping, making it the biggest single donor.
It comes at a time when the UN is dealing with a refugee crisis caused by the war in Syria and as it appeals for funds to help 20 milllion people facing starvation in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.
Paul Fritz, assistant professor of political science at Hofstra University, said any cuts would be almost catastrophic.
“There’s more pressure on programmes like the World Food Programme and others than there has been in decades,” he said.
Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said high-profile emergencies would still attract funding at the expense of less well-known trouble spots.
“The Europeans will always find enough to keep the Syrian relief operations going even if there are shortfalls,” he said. “What I rather imagine is that funds for dealing with foreign crises about which we know little, like the crisis in Central African Republic or parts of the Sahel, which are suffering very badly from violence and potential famine, there I think the money would start to dry up.”
At the same time, Mr Trump has managed to end speculation about another financial issue.
His spokesman, Sean Spicer, announced that the president would be donating his salary to a cause selected by White House correspondents.
“I think his view is he made a pledge to the American people he wants to donate it to charity and he'd love your help to determine where it should go,” he said during his regular briefing.
Mr Trump, who is believed to be worth $3billion, promised during the campaign that he would give his $400,000 White House pay cheque to charity without offering any explanation about how it would work – until now.
A number of reporters suggested using the money to fund a journalism scholarship or to protect freedom of the press.
Source: By Rob Crilly
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