In January the New York Times featured an alarming story: “U.N. says it's in danger of financial collapse because of unpaid dues” (1/30/26). Central to the story was a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutierres to all 193 member nations declaring a state of emergency at the world body. Senior UN officials told the Times Reporter, Farnaz Fassihi, that the U.N. could be “forced to shut down its landmark Headquarters in New York” and even “cancel the annual General Assembly of world leaders.”
The “imminent financial collapse,” they stated, could come as soon as this July. Clearly the purpose of Gutierres's letter and the Times article was to bring pressure on the United States which U.N. officials said was responsible for “95% of the financial deficit”, or about $2.2 billion. Interestingly, nowhere in the Gutierres letter or the Times article was there any mention of China.
The strategy however failed to work, as was made clear the following month in the wide-ranging testimony of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio before budget committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives. In these appearances Rubio severely chastised the U.N. for its long record of managerial incompetence, financial malpractice, and deep-seated bias against both the United States and Israel.
Most telling was his sharp criticism of the U.N.'s growing irrelevance in regard to the world's most pressing issues. In particular he faulted the U.N. for having played “virtually no role" in efforts to end major conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East.
On the matter of “ unpaid dues” he challenged the U.N. calculation of U.S. obligations and strongly defended the U.S. “using our fees as leverage” to promote long overdue reforms at the U.N.
Perhaps most importantly, Rubio contested the assertion that U.S. arrears jeopardized vital humanitarian programs. Rubio gave Congress detailed reporting on the new U.S. approach to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a longstanding U.N. agency that has been credibly accused of corruption and ties to Palestinian terrorists.
Currently, he said, the U.S. has gained substantial control over the OCHA purse strings by funneling money directly to those programs approved by the U.S. State Department. This year (2026) the U.S. earmarked $3.8 billion aid by this method.
In May a much broader portrait of the U.N. financial crisis began to emerge, this one featuring significant additions to the list of “delinquents,” one in particular: China. This more comprehensive narrative was reflected in a Wall Street Journalarticle of 5/29/26 by James T Areddy - “The U.N. is Going Broke as the U.S. and China Jostle for Control.”
Since U.N. dues are based on “size of economy,” a key reality in the current imbroglio is that China’s obligation has rocketed up within recent years from 5% to 20% of the annual U.N. budget (U.S. share is 22%), and presently China is $455 million in arrears. Other nations delinquent in paying 2025 dues are Venezuela( $38 million ), and Mexico ($20 million). Also announcing plans to cut support in 2026 are the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands, citing a variety of reasons from fiscal austerity, to new governments, and diminished belief in U.N. effectiveness.
In making its own support conditional, the U.S. demanded further reforms including “deeper savings, more job cuts, less business-class travel, and greater use of machine translators." This list is indicative of the fact that over time the U.N. with its bloated bureaucracy (Personnel = 70% of budget ) has become a “piggy bank” for members wanting to add staff to the absurd total of 40,000 separate programs noted by the Wall Street Journal.
In testimony before congressional committees, Secretary Rubio said that the future of the U.N. does not have to be the “race to bankruptcy" decried by Secretary-General Gutierres. He praised efforts already made at the U.N. to go beyond “inefficiency and hollow words“ and make genuine structural changes. Inefficient programs must “adapt, shrink, or die." He defended this transactional approach as nothing less than the level of accountability the American people expect from their government.
The United States is “neither embracing or abandoning the United Nations,” Rubio declared. Rather it is promoting reforms that “promise a better day for all." Stirring words, and bold intentions. Time will tell the measure of success that will be achieved.
William Moloney studied history and politics at Oxford and the University of London and received his doctorate from Harvard University. His columns have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Hill, The Washington Post, Washington Times. Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post and Human Events.