ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — President-elect Donald Trump confirmed his plan to appoint U.S. Congressmember Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the first cabinet pick of his second term. Trump has previously selected two women to represent the U.S. perspective on the world stage: Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft.
Stefanik, arguably New York's most powerful Republican in Congress, has voiced strong views on the U.N., especially about biases around Israel and China. Take a look at how her views square with those of Trump's previous U.N. Ambassadors.
Human Rights Council
Under former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley during the first Trump Administration, the U.S. withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council. After repeatedly threatening to leave the 47-member body, she said it had consistently harbored anti-Israel bias and ignored human rights abuses.
Haley criticized the council’s leniency toward nations with poor human rights records, like Syria, Iran, and Venezuela. She condemned letting countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo hold seats on the Council despite ongoing violations, calling it a failure of accountability.
Demands for reforms included removing countries with severe rights violations, enforcing open voting for council seats, and condemning abuses against women and minorities. Haley also objected to “Agenda Item Seven,” which required automatic scrutiny of Israel’s actions, calling it a biased policy.
The former ambassador called the U.S. exit a stand against hypocrisy. But under Pres. Joe Biden, the U.S. rejoined the council. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for reform, but said that only American leadership would accomplish any changes.
Stefanik has continued Haley’s criticisms. "The absurdly misnamed 'Human Rights Council,' composed of some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, has a standing antisemitic agenda item related to Israel and adopted a resolution stating that Israel should be held responsible for war crimes, all while failing to condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas," she said in September.
UNRWA
Ambassador Haley also supported cutting U.S. funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids over 5 million Palestinian refugees across the region. She and other Trump officials criticized UNRWA for mismanagement, bias against Israel, and over-counting refugees. The Trump administration ultimately reduced contributions from $364 million in 2017 to $60 million in 2018.
The cuts followed a Palestinian boycott of Trump peace efforts after the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Haley supported cutting funding in 2018, alleging misuse of aid and terrorist ties. Some Israeli military officials warned that the cuts could drive unrest, that Hamas could gain support without UNWA in the picture.
In 2021, Biden restored funding, pledging $235 million in aid, including $150 million to UNRWA, to rebuild ties with Palestinians. Stefanik recently renewed calls to defund UNRWA, claiming the agency fosters antisemitism and supports Hamas. She connected UNRWA to October 7 and urged Biden to restore the cuts.
"The U.S. must stand with Israel's decision to ban Hamas-infiltrated UNRWA from operating in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza," she said. "We must permanently cut off funding to UNRWA which instills antisemitic hate in Palestinians, houses weapons for terrorists, and steals the aid they are supposed to be distributing."
Paris Climate Agreement
Trump announced in 2017 that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, calling the deal a "massive wealth transfer" that benefited other nations at America’s expense. Adopted in 2015, it limited global warming by cutting emissions, with the U.S. committing to a 26% to 28% reduction by 2025.
“To fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord,” Trump said at the White House Rose Garden in 2017.
Trump argued the accord unfairly demanded costly U.S. commitments while letting countries like China and Russia off the hook. Haley supported the Trump perspective, consistently decrying the details of the accord on the U.N. world stage. But she left halfway through Trump's first term, and the ambassadorship remained vacant for eight months.
"The Paris Accord was going to cost us a trillion dollars, and China nothing, and Russia nothing, and India nothing. It was a rip-off of the U.S.," Trump said when debating Biden in June 2024. "It was a disaster."
Trump’s exit process began with a letter to the U.N. in 2019, but wasn't complete until after the 2020 election. So the U.S. quickly rejoined the agreement in 2021 under Biden.
Back in 2017, Stefanik was among few Republicans opposing a withdrawal. Calling it “misguided,” she argued for a bipartisan fight against climate change to protect the economy. "Innovation and business leadership have been key drivers to lowering our carbon emissions over the last 20 years, and we should continue to have an influential seat at the table as the rest of the world addresses these issues," she said. And in 2019, she even backed the Climate Action Now Act to keep the U.S. on track with Paris goals.
But by May 2024, “The Biden Administration’s attempt to push their failed Far Left climate agenda on hardworking American families is dangerous and unAmerican," she said. She challenged Biden’s strict emission standards as unworkable, advocating consumer choice over electric vehicle mandates. And in August, she lampooned the Inflation Reduction Act for its "ridiculous climate spending."
China and the World Health Organization
In 2020, Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the World Health Organization, established in 1948 as the U.N.’s health agency. He argued that it became “China-centric” and mishandled COVID, so he pushed for transparency and accountability.
Trump's second U.N. Ambassador, Craft, echoed his concerns, calling the WHO a “mouthpiece for China.” The country disagreed and accused the Trump administration of sabotaging U.S.-China relations.
“The Communist Party of China knowingly withheld critical information on the threat of COVID-19, and thousands of people have died because of their attempt to cover-up the virus,” Stefanik wrote in a press release in April 2020. “China must be held accountable for the devastating loss of life they have caused by lying and intentionally suppressing critical facts needed to combat COVID-19 early on in this pandemic."
The withdrawal, set to take effect on July 6, 2021, would halt funds and scale down U.S. participation in events. The plan included redirecting these funds to other U.N. programs. U.S. health officials started leaving their roles with the World Health Organization.
On January 20, 2021, just as Biden was sworn in, China sanctioned Craft and 27 other former Trump administration officials, banning them from travel to China and limiting their contact with Chinese institutions. Biden rejoined the WHO almost immediately upon taking office.
Stefanik remained critical. “As the leader of the free world, President Joe Biden has the power to demand answers from the World Health Organization as to why they promoted Chinese misinformation about the global COVID-19 pandemic that ultimately led to profound economic and human wreckage in hundreds of countries, including the loss of more than 400,000 American lives," she said on January 22, 2021. "Instead, President Biden made the illogical decision to rejoin the WHO without repercussions or demands for critical reforms."