Trump to cut funds to UN
President Donald Trump is preparing executive orders that will drastically cut funding to the United Nations as well as other international organisations that do not meet certain criteria, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The executive order plans to repeal certain multilateral treaties too, officials told the NYT, which would likely include treaties on climate change.
The report came as he defended his controversial plan to limit the entry of people from several Muslim countries as necessary in a “messy” world.
And upping the ante, the president has ordered his new administration to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants.
In an executive order titled "Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements", Trump on Wednesday signed into law many of the pledges he made during his election campaign. These include building a wall along the US-Mexico border, deporting illegal immigrants, establishing new immigration detention centres and hiring 5,000 more Border Patrol agents.
The New York Times reported that the new US administration is preparing two executive orders, drafts of which were obtained by the newspaper, that could deprive the United Nations and other organisations of billions of dollars.
The first draft order calls for scrapping all funding to any UN agency or international body that gives full membership to the Palestinians, or supports programs that fund abortion or any activity that circumvents sanctions against Iran or North Korea.
It would also terminate funding to organisations that are "controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism," or are blamed for systematic violations of human rights.
The order has singled out peacekeeping, the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Population Fund.
The order calls for an overall decrease of at least 40 percent in all other US funding to international organisations and sets up a committee to look specifically at US financial contributions for UN peacekeeping operations.
The United States is by far the UN's biggest financial contributor, providing 22 percent of its operating budget and funding 28 percent of peacekeeping missions, which currently cost $7.8 billion annually.
A US funding cut to peacekeeping would deal a severe blow to the 16 peace missions worldwide, most of which are in Africa.
Trump dismissed the UN last December as a "club" for people to "have a good time".
The second order calls for a review of all current and pending multilateral treaties and requests recommendations on which negotiations or treaties the US should leave.
This review applies to treaties that are not "directly related to national security, extradition or international trade," according to the draft.
The Paris climate deal could be affected by the proposed order.
Trump has openly questioned climate change and campaigned on a pledge to renege on US commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help finance the transition to a green economy.
"Taken together, the orders suggest that Mr Trump intends to pursue his campaign promises of withdrawing the United States from international organisations," wrote the Times.
Interviewed on ABC News later on Wednesday, Trump denied that his executive order on immigrants was a ban on Muslims.
"No it's not the Muslim ban, but it's countries that have tremendous terror," Trump said.
Trump refused to be pinned down on which countries he was talking about, but did say that he believed that Europe "made a tremendous mistake by allowing these millions of people to go into Germany and various other countries, and all you have to do is take a look, it's a disaster what's happening over there."
According to a draft executive order published in US media, refugees from war-torn Syria will be indefinitely banned, the broader US refugee admissions program will be suspended for 120 days, and all visa applications from countries deemed a terrorist threat -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen -- will be halted for 30 days.
THE WALL
Tensions between Donald Trump and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto over the US leader's vow to make Mexico fund a new wall on the neighbours' border boiled over yesterday with the cancellation of talks in Washington set for next week.
Trump had been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on Tuesday, for their first meeting since the inauguration. Instead, the Republican president is managing a foreign policy spat during his first week in office.
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