WASHINGTON — The United States announced on Monday it would pledge $2 billion to the United Nations for humanitarian aid next year as the Trump administration warns agencies to “adapt or die” to the scaled-back support.
The donation is much smaller than what the U.S. has contributed in the past, but it reflects a willingness within the administration to maintain the country’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor even as President Donald Trump slashes foreign aid as a way to cut down on spending. Still, the announcement came as a relief to U.N. agencies who rely on the financial support to provide food, shelter, medicine and other aid around the world.
“This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on social media.
But the pledge came with a stark warning from the State Department: The United Nations must “consolidate humanitarian functions” to reduce wasteful spending and bureaucratic overhead.
“Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die,” the department said in a statement.
The contribution is far lower than it has been in recent years. The U.S. was the top donor to U.N. humanitarian efforts in 2025 with about $3.38 billion in funds — roughly 14.6% of the global total, according to U.N. data.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the large sums of foreign aid in recent years, even going so far as to significantly decrease funding for foreign assistance programs and shuttering the United States Agency for International Development altogether earlier this year.
Still, some officials said they were pleasantly surprised with the amount the Trump administration did offer, even if it is lower than typical contributions.
“It’s a very, very significant landmark contribution. And a month ago, I would have anticipated the number would have been zero,” Tom Fletcher, who runs the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters earlier this week. “And so I think, before worrying about what we haven’t got, I’d like to look at the millions of people whose lives will be saved, whose lives will be better because of this contribution, and start there.”
Fletcher spent the last year urging U.S. officials not to cut off humanitarian aid to the United Nations.
The $2 billion pledge will go toward creating an umbrella fund that will later be distributed to different agencies and priorities, which was a key demand from the U.S. to ensure nothing is wasted. A total of 17 countries such as Ukraine and Haiti will be included in the initial target pool, with more likely to be added later.