At daily press briefings, United Nations spokesmen often attempt to be cute by quizzing reporters about countries that had just paid their dues. “We would like to say xièxiè to the latest contributor who made a full payment to the regular budget,” a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said on Thursday, adding: “We thank our friends in Beijing for their full payment to the regular budget. Any payments are helpful, but this is a very large payment of more than $685 million, so it’s well appreciated.”

Nevermind the shutdown in Washington: The UN has been making clear of late that it wants its money. As American troops await the next paycheck, with travelers dreading flight cancellations, and with food stamp dependents starting to go hungry, the world body is expecting Washington to maintain lucrative funding for its worldwide activities, some of which are opposed by President Trump. 

UN member states have a “treaty obligation” to pay assessed dues to the organization, Mr. Haq tells the Sun. As the Senate declines to approve a continuous resolution to fund the United States government, and regardless of America’s shutdown woes, America must pay up, he added. 

The current shutdown that defunds the United States government is “a domestic issue,” Mr. Haq said. “Different governments have different pressures that they face, but dues payment is part of their obligation.” Perhaps because of the shutdown, a spokesman for the American mission to the UN did not immediately reply to a request for a comment on the demand.

“I approach nearly every decision I can here with America first, with the American taxpayer first,” America’s ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the Nixon Foundation this week. “And that’s why we’re using, quite frankly, our contribution as leverage for reform.” 

In line with Washington’s fiscal year, America usually pays its UN dues toward the end of the year. The late payment always raises angst at Turtle Bay because America is its largest contributor. As Mr. Trump cuts funding for several UN operations, budgetary concerns are now even more pronounced than in the past. 

This week, as UN staffers and diplomats showed up for work, they were stunned to discover that one of two entrance gates to the Manhattan UN headquarters campus was shut. The closure was part of system-wide budgetary cuts. Sources say that after the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, ordered a slashing in some benefits enjoyed by the UN security guards, some of them performed an “Italian strike” — calling in sick or otherwise declining to show up. The gate was reopened later in the week.  

America is the largest financial contributor to the United Nations. It is responsible for 22 percent of the organization’s regular budget and 26 percent of its peacekeeping operations. Altogether, when voluntary and other payments were added, America pays 31 percent of all UN operations. 

Communist China, which in recent years has made inroads at the UN, taking over some of its most influential agencies, is now the second-largest contributor to its regular budget.

According to the UN General Assembly’s assessment, America’s debt to the regular budget in 2025 is $820 million. The UN’s regular budget is  $3.72 billion. Separately, America is expected to pay up to $1.2 billion to fund peacekeeping operations. That is despite America seemingly becoming increasingly critical of the world organization. 

“There are two things I got from the United Nations: A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” Mr. Trump said in September, after an escalator broke down when he arrived to address the General Assembly, and a teleprompter malfunctioned at the start of his speech.