Haley vows to defund the UN ‘as much as possible’ if elected

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, vowed Wednesday to defund the U.N. “as much as possible” if elected to the Oval Office, but she stopped short of saying the U.S. should withdraw from the international organization.

Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview pressed Haley on whether she agreed with the statement that the U.N. has been “historically anti-American and antisemitic.”

“That’s a true statement,” Haley responded.

Hannity pressed her on whether the U.S. would “get out” of the U.N. if she assumed the presidency. 

“The only thing is we would defund the U.N. as much as possible. The only reason, Sean, you don’t get out of the U.N. is we’re one country of five that has a veto,” Haley said.

“And the number of things we were able to stop China, Russia and Iran from doing with that veto matters, and so you keep bad things from happening. But we don’t have to pay at the level that we’re paying, and we don’t have to be in any of those other organizations.”

Haley, who has previously called the U.N. Human Rights Council “a farce,” said she would pull out of that council and said the U.S. “would certainly not get back into the Paris Climate Agreement” if she were president.

The Trump administration withdrew from the Human Rights Council in 2018, but the Biden administration rejoined it in 2021. The administrations also diverged over the Paris accords.

Haley further told Hannity the World Health Organization, a U.N. body, is “bought and paid for by the Chinese.”

Haley served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration. She is now challenging former President Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.

Trump stands as the Republican front-runner with a significant double-digit lead over his competitors, but Haley has notably risen to second place in some recent polling.