The Trump administration demands UN agencies disclose any
'anti-American' ties
[March 14, 2025]
By FARNOUSH AMIRI, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration is demanding U.N.
humanitarian agencies that receive or disburse U.S. funding fill out a
questionnaire disclosing any ties to communism, socialism or
anti-American beliefs, according to U.S. and U.N. officials and a copy
of the survey obtained by The Associated Press.
UNICEF and the U.N. Refugee Agency joined the remaining offices and
bureaus at the recently dismantled U.S. Agency for International
Development in receiving the questionnaire, which probed on several
Trump administration concerns, including whether any of the programs
were promoting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
It was unclear how widely the administration sent the survey, which was
verified by a current USAID staffer, a U.S. official and three U.N.
officials.
“I’m aware from some of our colleagues that a number of agencies have
received these types of questionnaires,” U.N. spokesman Stephane
Dujarric told reporters Thursday when asked about the survey.
The other officials spoke about the document on condition of anonymity
for fear of reprisal.
It is the latest effort by President Donald Trump's administration to
root out what it calls “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal
government, including by reevaluating foreign assistance. Secretary of
State Marco Rubio said the administration has cut 83% of programs
overseas run by USAID, the main U.S. foreign aid agency.
While some questions in the survey touch on routine issues like whether
a project has a risk management framework, others probe organizations’
stand on a range of hot-button issues for Republicans, including whether
they provide any abortion-related care or do work on DEI or “gender
ideology” issues.
The questionnaire asks respondents to confirm that “this is not a
climate or ‘environmental justice’ project,” that the organization
encourages free speech and that it “does not work with entities
associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any
party that espouses anti-American beliefs.”
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Flags fly outside the United Nations headquarters Sept. 28, 2019.
(AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz, File)
One question frames the U.N. agencies themselves as a problem,
asking organizations whether their projects “reinforce U.S.
sovereignty by limiting reliance on international organizations or
global governance structures (e.g., UN, WHO)?”
A second part of the survey asks organizations to give a score from
“no impact” to “major impact” on questions including, “What impact
does this project have on preventing illegal immigration to the
U.S.?” and “How much does this project directly impact efforts to
counter malign influence, including China?”
The comparatively few staffers left at USAID were among the federal
employees still striving to complete the questionnaires, despite the
Trump administration’s announcement that it had already decided to
gut the agency's contracts, the USAID staffer said.
One former diplomat said the questions will seem “intrusive and
uncomfortable” to anyone doing development work overseas.
“At the U.N., where you have 193 countries that represent every
race, gender and language, diversity is a fact. It is not an
ideology,” said Thomas Shannon, a former U.S. diplomat who worked
under President Barack Obama and during Trump's first
administration.
“It would be my hope that the United States would understand that
maybe with a few exceptions, the programs at the U.N. are not
designed to promote ‘woke’ ideology but to address very real
obstacles and challenges,” he said.
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Lee reported from La Malbaie, Canada, and Knickmeyer from
Washington.
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