Let's talk about Trump's budget embarrassing the US.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump's budget embarrassing the US.

As US power and influence declines around the world, Trump decided to highlight our surrender of world leadership in what might be the most Trumpian way. The US announced a $2 billion pledge for UN humanitarian aid. $2 billion.

Let's put it in context real quick. This is a massive cut to our normal contribution. Depending on how you count the contributions, the US could give as high as 17 billion in a single recent year. But the administration wants to only count voluntary contributions. Fine. That's still 8 billion to 10 billion. Secretary of State Rubio said, "This new model will better share the burden of UN humanitarian work with other developed countries." The numbers don't even remotely line up with the idea of better sharing the burden. It's just a blatant US surrender of its role in the world.

Let's just run a couple of comparisons real quick. The UAE and Saudi Arabia chipped in about $1.5 billion each last year. Saudi Arabia has about 4% of our GDP. The UAE has a GDP that's less than 2% of ours. If we're better sharing using the UAE as a guideline, we have to significantly increase our contributions higher than they've ever been.

Some US officials say they'll add more money later if the UN does what they want. Saying that after all of the abrupt US aid cuts last year that left people stranded and starving would be laughable if it wasn't so appalling.

The value of a US promise doesn't really mean much anymore. It's also important to understand that Trump's humanitarian aid funding in 2025 was only $3.4 billion. So the idea that there will be some windfall for aid is just a sick joke. This is the surrender of US soft power. Our contributions being within reach of the contributions from countries that have less than 2% of our GDP is humiliating. It's screaming loudly to the world that we're a fallen empire and too weak to contribute to the world.

The Republican party likes to talk about being a Christian nation. But when they have the opportunity to provide aid, they refuse and act as if it's a virtue. I have a little more context to help put that dollar amount into focus. Our global humanitarian contribution at two billion will be about half what we as a country spend on Halloween candy each year. It's embarrassing to think that low level of funding is being considered. It's humiliating that in 2025 we already dropped below the amount we spend on Halloween candy. We spend $3.9 billion on Halloween candy and only $3.4 billion humanitarian aid funding is reported by the UN. That's the weakened state of the US under Trump's foreign policy.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.