Trump’s UN Ambassador Pick Elise Stefanik Could Save Taxpayers Millions If She Uses Musk-Ramaswamy ‘DOGE’

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY., will soon appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to seek confirmation of her role in President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Several former diplomats who spoke to Fox News Digital say the immediate concern for the next UN ambassador should rule America’s spending at the world body. Outflows to the organization grew with 11.6 billion dollars in 2020 to $18.1 billion in 2022, when the US covered one third of the total UN budget.

A former senior US diplomat told Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity that, with “many different tasks ahead of him, [Stefanik] she’ll have to be selective about what she really wants to do.” The diplomat listed major areas of concern as cronyism and corruption and hiring more Americans at the UN

STEFANIK MET WITH SENATORS AS TRUMP’S AMBASSADOR NOMINEE, CLASSES ‘AMERICA FIRST, PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH’

He said the UN is “an organization that often disagrees with US foreign policy,” making it “a little strange to pour all that money in” and then “see a lot of anti-American sentiment and support for causes that we have problems with.”

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute for Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Voices for Human Rights, called on Trump’s Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) team, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, “to stop funding the UN which is completely contrary to American interests. This immediate savings in the billions should be low-hanging fruit. In the General Assembly, the United States has only one vote out of 193 member states and is routinely outvoted by an undemocratic, anti-American and anti-Israel crowd on key issues. But as soon as we lose, we turn around and pay for all the legal and anti-Semitic schemes that these same resolutions devise.”

“DOGE – who cares about money – should have no such inhibitions about taxpayer dollars being used to fund the UN’s dangerous and deadly output,” Bayefsky said. “The days of the United Nations as a global money launderer for terrorists and anti-Semites dressed up as human rights and refugee experts must end now.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Stefanik, when asked about her plans for UN reform if confirmed, told Fox News Digital that “Elise Stefanik is deeply honored to be nominated by President Trump to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She looks forward to having the support of her colleagues at Senate and working through the confirmation process. Once confirmed, she is ready to drive the necessary reform and advance President Trump’s America, peace through national security agenda on the world stage. day at the United Nations.”

To aid the reform effort, Hugh Dugan, a former National Security Council adviser on international organizations and a US diplomat at the world body, created DOGE-UN, which he says mimics the “methodology and purpose” of DOGE.

Although Dugan said DOGE-UN is a “stand-alone resource,” he explained that he hopes it can be a tool for collaboration and “save [DOGE] some of the previous analytical work” about which expenditures should be examined more closely.

ISRAELI OFFICIAL PRAISES ŠTEFANIKA AS UN ELECTED, SAYS HER ‘MORAL CLARITY’ WITH THE ‘HATRED AND LIES’ OF THE COMBAT BODY

Dugan is working to “identify some practical early wins” that show “the potential to make the UN more efficient and cost-effective.” This includes reviewing the UN procurement manual “to avoid corruption and malfeasance” and “ensuring that there is a sense of consequence associated with all procurement matters on behalf of the US taxpayer.” Dugan said DOGE-UN will also investigate “where and how the UN has developed into its deep state, more or less ignoring and overlooking the wishes and will and need of member states for efficient and responsible management of resources.”

The US “cannot be a passive shareholder” in the UN, Dugan said. “We need to develop better competence in Washington, better leadership, more resources dedicated to these dry substances, because if the US does not come forward with these questions, concerns and criticisms, no other country will.”

Although Dugan says DOGE-UN is “trying to stick to offensive inefficiencies,” he said there is a possibility of directing funding to programs that are “impossible to support from a policy standpoint.” To that end, Dugan said that “strong accountability” for the use of US resources by the secretary general is essential to ensure that the UN “does not play a fake game with our contributions and continue to fund even those things that we don’t like “.

While U.S. departments have independent inspectors general who look for waste and fraud, Dugan noted that the secretary-general manages the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which means the secretary-general can decide whether the findings of U.N. investigations are “publicized or kept silent”.

Peter Gallo, a former OIOS investigator, told Fox News Digital that the independent oversight function lacked independent oversight and said the investigative function should be taken “out of the hands of the UN.” Gallo said that “in the immediate future,” he would propose that investigations be “subject to independent oversight, and every dollar spent subject to review.”

The extent to which employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) are linked to terrorist organizations is of particular concern to Gallo, who says investigations into the matter have been neither transparent nor independent.

Dugan said he believes withdrawing from the organization would be counterintuitive, adding that China is “more than willing to swoop in and fill any leadership vacuum that we don’t fill and will use that opportunity to advance its own hegemonic ambitions.”

Dugan said he hopes the DOGE-UN findings will “serve the administration” and “help them identify assessments that have been overlooked, and primarily help us create the resources the world needs so China can’t run away with them.”

THE CONTROVERSIAL UN AGENCY THAT EMPLOYED OCT. 7 TERRORISTS FACING NEW PROBLEMS AS GOVERNMENT REDIRECTS FUNDING

A recent topic of debate at the UN illustrates the organization’s drift away from US interests.

In January 2024, the US ended contributions to UNRWA until March 2025 after evidence emerged that agency members were involved in the October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200, including 45 Americans.

It’s in October The Israeli Knesset banned UNRWA from operating inside Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, given the mounting evidence of Hamas infiltration of UNRWA.

In December, the resolution came before the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly, which is responsible for budgetary and financial issues. The resolution suggests that the International Court of Justice issue an advisory opinion on Israel’s ban on UNRWA, citing Israel’s “obligations… to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies” and “basic services and humanitarian development assistance.”

The USA voted against the resolution. However, on a related vote on funding of the estimated $298,900 needed to implement the resolution, the US simply abstained.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

When asked about the difference in votes, a US State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the US “has consistently shown opposition to this request for an advisory opinion, including voting against the relevant General Assembly resolution. The budget is a separate matter. The role of the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly- and is not a review of mandates authorized by other UN bodies.”

Bayefsky told Fox News Digital that the State Department’s comment represented a “twisted, indefensible strategy” by the Biden administration. “When it comes to spending our money through the UN budget committee, supposedly the role of the US is not to ‘rethink’.”