Poll: Voters Back President Trump on U.S. Funding United Nations

American voters agree with President Donald Trump when he stressed burden sharing in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, a new poll finds. On Tuesday, President Trump told more than 150 international delegations they should no longer expect hollow demands for a good return on their investment in the UN.

“The United States will forever be a great friend to the world and especially to its allies,” he said. “But we can no longer enter into a one-sided deal where the U.S. gets nothing in return.”

A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds just 29% of American voters believe U.S. taxpayers are “getting a good return on their investment,”  while a 44% plurality do not. While that compares to 22% and 55%, respectively, measured last October, a solid 27% are now not sure.

The U.S. is far and away the largest provider of financial contributions to the UN. In 2015, the U.S. provided 22% of the UN budget and 28% of the peacekeeping budget. Meanwhile, China pays just 8% and Russia pays around 3%. The disparity gives the U.S. great leverage over the UN, which past presidents have been hesitant to use.

Just 36% of likely voters think the U.S. should continue to give more money to the UN than any other country in the world, while 46% do not agree. Men are slightly less likely (45%) than woman (47%) to say the U.S. shouldn’t give more money, while women are slightly less likely (32%) than men (39%) to say yes.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans say no and 50% of Democrats say yes. Unaffiliated voters by a 51% to 33% margin say the U.S. should not continue to give more money to the UN than any other country in the world. Ideologically, the numbers break down a little different.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of conservatives say the U.S. should not give more to the UN than other nations, but just 42% of moderates and 22% of liberals agree.

President Trump earlier in the year weighed whether the U.S. should dramatically reduce funding for the UN. Voters by a large 50% to 33% margin favored that major cutback.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 18-19, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.