The Trump administration demands UN agencies disclose any 'anti-American' ties

Flags fly outside the United Nations headquarters Sept. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz, File)

UNITED NATIONS — The Trump administration is demanding UN humanitarian agencies that receive or disburse U.S. funding fill out a questionnaire disclosing any ties to communism, socialism or anti-American beliefs, according to U.S. and UN officials and a copy of the survey obtained by The Associated Press.

UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency joined the remaining offices and bureaus at the recently dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development in receiving the questionnaire, which probed on several Trump administration concerns, including whether any of the programs were promoting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

It was unclear how widely the administration sent the survey, which was verified by a current USAID staffer, a U.S. official and three UN officials.

“I’m aware from some of our colleagues that a number of agencies have received these types of questionnaires,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday when asked about the survey.

The other officials spoke about the document on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

It is the latest effort by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to root out what it calls “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government, including by reevaluating foreign assistance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration has cut 83% of programs overseas run by USAID, the main U.S. foreign aid agency.

While some questions in the survey touch on routine issues like whether a project has a risk management framework, others probe organizations’ stand on a range of hot-button issues for Republicans, including whether they provide any abortion-related care or do work on DEI or “gender ideology” issues.

The questionnaire asks respondents to confirm that “this is not a climate or ‘environmental justice’ project,” that the organization encourages free speech and that it “does not work with entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs.”

One question frames the UN agencies themselves as a problem, asking organizations whether their projects “reinforce U.S. sovereignty by limiting reliance on international organizations or global governance structures (e.g., UN, WHO)?”

A second part of the survey asks organizations to give a score from “no impact” to “major impact” on questions including, “What impact does this project have on preventing illegal immigration to the U.S.?” and “How much does this project directly impact efforts to counter malign influence, including China?”

The comparatively few staffers left at USAID were among the federal employees still striving to complete the questionnaires, despite the Trump administration’s announcement that it had already decided to gut the agency’s contracts, the USAID staffer said.

One former diplomat said the questions will seem “intrusive and uncomfortable” to anyone doing development work overseas.

“At the UN, where you have 193 countries that represent every race, gender and language, diversity is a fact. It is not an ideology,” said Thomas Shannon, a former U.S. diplomat who worked under President Barack Obama and during Trump’s first administration.

“It would be my hope that the United States would understand that maybe with a few exceptions, the programs at the UN are not designed to promote ‘woke’ ideology but to address very real obstacles and challenges,” he said.

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Farnoush Amiri, Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

Lee reported from La Malbaie, Que., and Knickmeyer from Washington.