The Trump administration announced Monday a sweeping overhaul of U.S. funding for UN humanitarian programs, warning U.N. agencies they must “adapt, shrink, or die.”
The State Department said the agreement requires the U.N. to consolidate humanitarian functions, cut bureaucratic overhead and address what it described as “ideological creep” inside aid agencies. U.S. officials argue the pledge preserves America’s commitment to life-saving aid while forcing greater efficiency and accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent.
“Today’s agreement ushers in a new era of UN humanitarian action and U.S. leadership in the UN system,” said Jeremy Lewin, senior official for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom. “It shifts U.S. funding of UN humanitarian work onto clearly defined, accountable, efficient, and hyper-prioritized funding mechanisms to ensure that every taxpayer dollar spent of humanitarian assistance both advances American national interests and achieves the greatest possible lifesaving impact.”
“Over President Trump’s second term, this partnership will save tens of millions of lives all around the world, while also delivering billions in efficiency-oriented savings to American taxpayers,” Lewin added.
Under the agreement, U.S. funds will be placed into a centralized pool managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), rather than distributed directly to individual agencies. Previously, the UN funded hundreds of individual, project-based grants that often overlapped and offered little flexibility to redirect resources as conditions changed, according to the State Department.
The restructuring will eliminate duplicative funding and allow greater prioritization of lifesaving work, Lewin told reporters. The U.S. will direct an initial $2 billion to target 17 countries, including Haiti, Syria, Ukraine and the Congo.
The initial $2 billion commitment represents a pullback from previous years, when U.S. humanitarian support for UN-backed programs reached as high as $17 billion annually, according to UN data. Lewin, however, disputed characterizations of the pledge as a massive cut, saying it does not reflect the full level of funding for the year and is intended to serve as the foundation of a broader funding push.
“Before you dismiss it by looking at some chart, $2 billion … means millions of people are gonna get life-saving support,” Lewin said, challenging other nations to beat the U.S. contribution.
The UN aims to raise more than $20 billion globally for humanitarian work in 2026 by targeting additional donor countries and the private sector, said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, who will oversee the distribution of the funds.
“We did get too reliant on the U.S. as easily our largest donor for many, many years. And it’s important we continue that work to broaden the base,” Fletcher said.
The State Department said UN agencies must reduce bureaucratic overhead, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and address ideological drift, under a new standard of “adapt, shrink, or die.”
“‘Adapt or die’ is pretty strong,” Fletcher said, but noted that UN agencies are already adjusting to the Trump administration’s focus on efficiency and accountability.
Fletcher pointed to the broader “Humanitarian Reset” initiative, which he said has clarified what qualifies as lifesaving work and stripped away layers of inefficiency and bureaucratic inertia.
“If the choice is adapt or die, I choose adapt,” Fletcher said, adding that he believes the changes will ultimately save more lives.
Over time, the State Department expects all U.S. funding for UN humanitarian work to be channeled through the OCHA-managed fund.
“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven assistance aligned with U.S foreign policy,” said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Walz.
Lewin also said the effort aligns with the Trump administration’s broader emphasis on peace and conflict prevention, rather than solely on humanitarian response.
“It’s incalculable the human suffering that’s prevented through the hard work of diplomacy that President Trump is doing to prevent armed conflict,” Lewin said. “Those costs have ballooned in recent years because the Biden administration sat by and let all of these wars and conflicts fester and get worse. And they said, you know, we’ll throw some humanitarian aid at the problem.”
“No one wants to be living in a [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] camp because they’ve been displaced by conflict. So, the best thing that we can do to decrease costs — and President Trump recognized this, and that’s why he’s the president of peace — is by ending armed conflict,” Lewin said.
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