Americans Say the UN Still Matters — They Just Don’t Think it Works

Most Americans want the United States to stay in the United Nations, but they’re not thrilled with how the organization is performing. A new Gallup poll released Monday, timed to the 80th UN General Assembly, finds 60% of US adults say the UN is necessary even as 63% rate it as doing a poor job at tackling global problems. Support for the institution’s relevance has slipped from the late-1990s high — back in 1997, 85% called the UN necessary — yet the basic instinct to keep a seat at the table remains strong.

Membership isn’t really in doubt. Seventy-nine percent say the US should remain in the UN, while 17% want out — a share that ties the peak skepticism Gallup recorded in 1996. When the question turns to money, views split three ways: roughly a third want to hold funding steady, a quarter would increase it, and about four in ten prefer cuts. All of that debate plays out against the longstanding fact that the US is the UN’s biggest backer, covering about 22% of its regular budget.

Partisanship, unsurprisingly, shapes the mood. Republicans are markedly more skeptical: a majority say the UN isn’t necessary, and they’re far more likely than Democrats or independents to favor quitting altogether. Democrats tend to see value in the institution and are the least inclined to talk about leaving, while independents cluster somewhere in the middle. Even so, majorities across all three groups say stay in.

The political backdrop matters here. In his second term, President Donald Trump has pushed Washington to distance itself from multilateral bodies, pulling the US out of the UN Human Rights Council in February and withdrawing from UNESCO in July while trimming foreign aid. That posture likely reinforces Republican doubts and keeps the funding fight live, even as broader public opinion still leans toward engagement.

The survey also captures a paradox that has dogged the UN for years: Americans broadly accept that a messy world needs a forum where nations talk, bargain, and sometimes compromise, but they’re skeptical that the forum delivers. From wars that drag on to humanitarian crises that worsen despite resolutions and appeals, the UN’s track record fuels frustration, even among those who want the US to keep showing up.

Methodologically, Gallup conducted telephone interviews August 1–20 with a random national sample of 1,094 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

The original story by Katherine Long for Politico.