‘We'll save a lot‘: Trump threatens to stop aid to UN member states over Jerusalem vote

Published time: 20 Dec, 2017 18:23Edited time: 20 Dec, 2017 18:41

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US President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on 20 December 2017. © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut aid to UN member states who vote against US at the upcoming UN General Assembly on the issue of Washington’s Jerusalem move. He said the US will save “billions” in the process.

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His threats come ahead of the rare emergency special session of the UNGA scheduled for Thursday. Arab and Muslim countries requested the meeting after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to rescind Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Trump went ahead with his controversial declaration earlier this month despite multiple warnings against doing so, drawing international condemnation and stirring protests from Muslims worldwide.

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

READ MORE: The talented Ms. Haley: UN envoy sets bar for US diplomacy dangerously low

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Nikki Haley

✔@nikkihaley

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.

9:08 AM - Dec 20, 2017

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On Tuesday, the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, sent a warning letter to the member states, saying the US president will take the voting choices on his landmark Jerusalem decision “personally.”

“The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us,” Haley stated in the letter.

Haley voiced a similarly non-subtle warning on Twitter earlier: “We don't expect those we've helped to target us,” she stated, threatening that the US “will be taking names” of those “criticizing” Trump's Jerusalem decision during Thursday's vote.