The Trump administration will release funding for UN agencies in exchange for the Democratic ranking member’s vote
Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) voted against advancing Mike Waltz’s nomination for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a move that cost American taxpayers $75 million in funds that will now go to the U.N.
Paul was the lone Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote no, putting Waltz’s nomination on track to stall in an 11-11 tie. To break it, the Trump administration struck a deal with ranking member Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) that will see the State Department release $50 million in aid for Haiti and $25 million for Nigeria in exchange for her vote.
Most of the funding will go toward the U.N.’s World Food Programme, according to Punchbowl News. Of the $50 million earmarked for Haiti, $13 million will be sent to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. Congress had previously authorized $75 million for it, but the Trump administration froze the funds earlier this year as part of its broader campaign to pause and review U.S. foreign aid spending.
The Kentucky senator’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s nominee forced the administration to come to an agreement that cuts against its own demonstrated priorities. Trump has withdrawn funding or outright removed the United States from multiple U.N. agencies—most recently the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization over the international body’s anti-American and anti-Israel prejudices.
Trump also pulled the United States out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which the administration described as “a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations,” and scrapped U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which employed staffers who participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel.
Paul’s hardline stance against Waltz’s nomination—and the agreement he ultimately forced the administration to enter—is not the first time the senator has attempted to get in the way of Trump’s agenda.
He opposed Trump’s decision to strike the Iranian nuclear program to the extent that he was the only Republican to vote for a failed resolution that would have prevented the president from doing so. On Wednesday, he blocked a resolution urging the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to trigger snapback sanctions against the Islamic Republic and expand Trump’s maximum pressure strategy.
Paul sharply criticized Trump’s military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army’s founding as well. He compared it to scenes from the Soviet Union and North Korea, remarking in an interview that he has “never been a big fan of goose-stepping soldiers and big tanks and missiles rolling down the street.”
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