Utah Sen. Mike Lee has a message for the United Nations perfectly timed for the July 4th holiday weekend and America’s 249th birthday: Let’s get out of the U.N. for good. But his plan needs greater amplification if it’s going to succeed.
Lee’s proposal, revealed in February, has not received the media attention it deserves in the runup to America’s 250th anniversary next year. But here’s hoping that will change starting now, a year ahead of time. This can be done with a little imagination, some Trumpian overtones, and a lot of fun. So, here’s a suggested scenario that has The Donald standing in for Utah’s senior Republican U.S. senator at a possible press conference. (RELATED: WHO’s Out First?)
July 4, 2025, the golf course in Mar-a-Lago:
“Hey Turtle Bay bureaucrats, get lost, why don’t you — and take your limousines, your diplomatic immunity, your anti-Americanism, your antisemitism, your diplomatic immunity, and go set up shop in a third world outpost. And this time, do it without U.S. taxpayer support!”
I’ll invite the president to circulate his own commentary, but I’ll bet this hits close to the mark. Until then, it’s up to our more reserved man from Utah to free the nation from globalist initiatives that bypass America’s democratic institutions.
The Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act is heavily focused on cutting financial ties between the U.S. and the U.N. While the U.S. is just one of 193 member nations, it finances one-fifth of the U.N. system, according to a summary statement of Lee’s bill, with most of the contributions being voluntary. The Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. foreign policy think tank, reports that the U.S. donated more than $18 billion in 2022.
Lee has also made the point that “U.S. dollars are being used to make a mockery of [America’s] values” with these contributions. He cites several examples including contributions that have given refuge to terrorists through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the promotion of coercive abortions under the phony label of “reproductive rights,” giving political cover for China’s human rights abuses, and the U.N. support given to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecuting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lee has also balked at the “bloated, bureaucratic, supranational framework,” which is precisely the sort of arrangement America’s founders sought to avoid.
Previous efforts to have the U.S. withdraw from the U.N. have met with minimal support. This time around, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rick Scott, R-Fla are serving as cosponsors. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, have introduced companion legislation on the House side.
“If we engage with the U.N. in the future, it will be on our terms, with the full backing of the Senate and an ironclad escape clause.”
When he announced his legislative proposal, Lee made it clear he didn’t want U.S. taxpayers footing the bill any longer for policies that are diametrically opposed to American values.
“No more blank checks for the United Nations,” Lee said in a press release. “Americans’ hard-earned dollars have been funneled into initiatives that fly in the face of our values, enabling tyrants, betraying allies, and spreading bigotry. With the DEFUND Act, we’re stepping away from this debacle. If we engage with the U.N. in the future, it will be on our terms, with the full backing of the Senate and an ironclad escape clause.”
For all of us America Firsters, that’s one sure way to chart the right path forward.
Just as Thomas Jefferson took the lead to declare our independence from Great Britain in 1776, here in the 21st Century, Lee is taking the lead to restore American independence by having us withdraw from the United Nations.
The nuts and bolts of what Lee calls the DEFUND Act should attract attention in the Age of Trump.
Lee takes it all the way back to 1945 and revokes the “critical acts,” as he puts it, that glued the U.S. to the U.N. Then he proposes to halt “all forms of U.S. financial support to the U.N.” This would include any assessed and voluntary contributions. Withdrawing from the U.N. would also mean withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other U.N. conventions.
Why now? Why did Lee pick this year as the appropriate moment to drop this bill?
In his public comments, Lee says the DEFUND Act “comes in response to years of unchecked bureaucratic expansion and financial misuse by the U.N. at the expense of American taxpayers.”
Trump has already made incremental, but significant moves in the direction of what Lee has in mind. In one of his first executive actions, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. Paris Climate Agreement and also revoked any financial commitments for the U.S. under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
I’ve made the case for Trump going a step further, calling the beast by its name, and describing the Paris Agreement as a treaty that is in need of U.S. Senate ratification under the U.S. Constitution. Only with a two-thirds vote can a treaty be ratified, which means a vote in the Senate would almost permanently close off any avenues for U.S. participation. Trump could also withdraw entirely from U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
But let’s not stop there.
Only this July 4th, let’s go long and throw deep and make plans to be completely free of the U.N. this time next year when America turns 250. Thanks, Sen. Lee.
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Kevin Mooney is a senior investigative researcher for Restoration News.