United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the "UN80 Initiative" on Wednesday as a project in honor of the international body’s 80th anniversary. On paper, the initiative aims to improve efficiency, review the implementation of mandates and restructure the system. However, several U.N. critics claim that this is the international body’s way of bracing for potential U.S. spending cuts.
"This goes far beyond the technical. Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet — they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world," Secretary-General Guterres told reporters on Wednesday.
He denied that the UN80 Initiative is a "version of DOGE" and said it was not a response to possible U.S. cuts.
Head of the organization DOGE-UN Hugh Dugan dismissed the UN80 Initiative as an "effort to send a great big Hallmark greeting card to the world."
"He's had 8 to 10 years of opportunity to start what he's calling for now, and there is not enough time in his remaining 18 months or 19 months in office that could provide any reason to think that his team is going to pivot and set the world on fire in ways that would be a footrace with whatever Elon Musk is doing," Dugan told Fox News Digital.
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When pressed by Fox News Digital during the midday briefing if UN80 was meant as a response to U.S. cuts and if the secretary-general was worried about Elon Musk, the Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric referred to the comments the secretary-general made earlier in the day.
Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President, Human Rights Voices, responded to the secretary-general’s comments. She slammed the U.N. as a "bloated, corrupt and profoundly anti-American and anti-Jewish institution."
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"Every time a U.S. government begins to try to hold it to account or use the power of the purse to change this nonsensical equation, the U.N. trots out a ‘reform’ fake out and America rolls over. President Trump and DOGE can change this perverse state of affairs," Bayefsky told Fox News Digital.
"Obviously, Guterres is running scared and deeply concerned that his total nonsense about being engaged in ‘an ambitious reform agenda’ will be called out," she added.
Internal U.N. documents on its "liquidity crisis" recently obtained by Fox News Digital appeared to show that the intuition was bracing itself for possible DOGE-related spending cuts.
Despite the U.N. memo stating that cutting back to 80% of allocated funds would potentially harm entities, insiders told Dugan that they do not see any "real cuts" in it.
Guterres is expected to address the U.N.’s financial situation next month in a virtual town hall. While there was no topic specified in the invitation for the town hall, Dujarric confirmed that finances would be discussed.
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