Latest
42 minutes agoParalympian Veteran Waited 5 Years for a Wheelchair Lift. She Says Canada Offered Her Assisted Death.44 minutes agoGlenview Teen Shot Dead at Home: Sheriff Says Evidence Is There, Cook County Still Won’t Charge1 hour agoRhode Island Ruled Him Incompetent for 23 Years and Let Him Walk. Now a Toddler Was Stabbed in Her Stroller.1 hour agoHistorian Recounts Digging Through a Building Floor on Tarawa to Bring 11 Missing Americans Home1 hour agoHe Says He Refused a DNR for His Wife Five Times. The Hospital Put It on Her Chart Anyway.6 hours agoIDF Kills Hamas Weapons Commander Who Infiltrated Israel on October 77 hours agoTrump Calls Zelensky ‘P.T. Barnum,’ Says Biden-Era Missiles Were ‘Sold on the Open Market’7 hours agoNew Jersey Deputy Attorney General Charged With Using AI to Create and Share Child Sexual Abuse Material9 hours agoPowder-Filled Letters Hit Election Offices in at Least 15 States and Senate Offices Weeks Before the Midterms12 hours agoArmed Community Member Stopped Oregon School Gunman Within Minutes. Even CNN Said ‘Thank God for That Person.’16 hours agoNew York Renter Blames MAGA for Her $4,000 Studio. Democrats Hold 46 of 51 City Council Seats.20 hours agoPentagon Drafts Iran Strike Plans That Could Include the ‘Mother of All Bombs,’ CNN Reports42 minutes agoParalympian Veteran Waited 5 Years for a Wheelchair Lift. She Says Canada Offered Her Assisted Death.44 minutes agoGlenview Teen Shot Dead at Home: Sheriff Says Evidence Is There, Cook County Still Won’t Charge1 hour agoRhode Island Ruled Him Incompetent for 23 Years and Let Him Walk. Now a Toddler Was Stabbed in Her Stroller.1 hour agoHistorian Recounts Digging Through a Building Floor on Tarawa to Bring 11 Missing Americans Home1 hour agoHe Says He Refused a DNR for His Wife Five Times. The Hospital Put It on Her Chart Anyway.6 hours agoIDF Kills Hamas Weapons Commander Who Infiltrated Israel on October 77 hours agoTrump Calls Zelensky ‘P.T. Barnum,’ Says Biden-Era Missiles Were ‘Sold on the Open Market’7 hours agoNew Jersey Deputy Attorney General Charged With Using AI to Create and Share Child Sexual Abuse Material9 hours agoPowder-Filled Letters Hit Election Offices in at Least 15 States and Senate Offices Weeks Before the Midterms12 hours agoArmed Community Member Stopped Oregon School Gunman Within Minutes. Even CNN Said ‘Thank God for That Person.’16 hours agoNew York Renter Blames MAGA for Her $4,000 Studio. Democrats Hold 46 of 51 City Council Seats.20 hours agoPentagon Drafts Iran Strike Plans That Could Include the ‘Mother of All Bombs,’ CNN Reports
Trump tells the UN: while I'm president, there will be no global taxes.

Trump to the UN: ‘While I’m President, There Will Be No Global Taxes’

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanSeptember 22, 2026 · 4 min read
š¯•¸f

President Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2026, that as long as he is president, “there will be no global taxes.” In his address to the 81st session, he singled out the International Maritime Organization, saying his administration had to step in last year to stop the UN shipping agency from creating what he called the first-ever global carbon tax.

He paired that with a boast about the UN itself: a 15 percent cut to its budget, which he called part of “the most sweeping U.N. reforms in history.”

What he said

The passage was short and blunt. According to the transcript published by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Trump said:

“Last year, my administration was forced to intervene to stop an obscure U.N. body, the International Maritime Organization, from secretly establishing a first ever global carbon tax, very expensive tax to raise international shipping costs by 10 to 20 percent, and maybe more than that. There is no global government. And while I’m president, there will be no global taxes.”

Just before that, he credited U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz: “Led by Ambassador Michael Waltz here at the United Nations, we have also worked with many countries in this room to implement the most sweeping U.N. reforms in history. We cut the U.N. budget for the first time ever, slashing it by 15 percent in 2026. That eliminated more than 4,000 positions from the U.N. bureaucracy.” He added that the UN “must stop imposing the far left agenda of global bureaucrats who nobody ever elected.”

The “obscure U.N. body” and its shipping levy

The IMO is the UN agency that writes the rules for international shipping. In 2025 it moved toward adopting a so-called Net-Zero Framework. As described by the trade publication Professional Mariner, the plan would set binding targets, starting in 2028, for ships over 5,000 gross tons to cut the carbon intensity of their fuel. Ships that miss the limits would have to buy “remedial units,” and the money would flow into an IMO Net-Zero Fund. Critics, including the administration, call that what it functionally is: a price on carbon, levied by an international body, on the ships that carry American imports and exports.

The adoption vote was supposed to happen in October 2025. It did not. On October 17, 2025, member states voted 57 to 49, with 21 abstentions, to adjourn the session for a year. Singapore proposed the delay and Saudi Arabia called the vote. Professional Mariner reported that beforehand the Trump administration had threatened retaliatory tariffs and sanctions against countries that supported the framework, pressure some delegates described as “bullying.”

So Trump’s claim that he intervened is well documented. What the record does not show is that the plan is dead. The postponement was for one year, pushing the adoption vote to an IMO session in October 2026, according to the environmental group Transport & Environment, which backs the framework and warned the delay could push its entry into force to 2030. The fight is postponed, not over.

Congress is backing the play

The administration is not alone. On October 31, 2025, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, introduced the UNtaxed Act. According to his office, it would reassert the Senate’s right to consent before any UN-imposed tax takes effect in the United States, and bar U.S. contributions to any UN agency that tries to unilaterally tax Americans. “The United Nations has no legal authority to impose taxes on American citizens or companies,” Pfluger said, calling the bill “an extension of President Trump’s leadership.”

That is the heart of it. Under the Constitution, taxes on Americans are written by Congress, and treaties need two-thirds of the Senate. A fee assessed by an international agency on the ships that stock American shelves skips both.

The budget cut, by the numbers

The UN budget claim checks out on the headline figure. In April 2026 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Waltz said that in December 2025 the U.S. and its partners “cut the regular budget by about 15 percentā€”$570 million.” The 2026 regular budget was projected at about $3.45 billion, of which the U.S. pays roughly a fifth, and Waltz said the cut reduced American dues by about $126 million.

On jobs, the numbers differ. Trump told the Assembly the cut eliminated more than 4,000 positions. Waltz’s testimony put the figure at “nearly 3,000 headquarters-based positions.” Either way, Trump called it the first U.N. budget cut ever, and Waltz told senators the outcomes were “unprecedented in the UN’s history.”

Why it matters

The UN has spent decades growing its budget, its staff and its ambitions, with American taxpayers covering roughly a fifth of the regular budget. A global levy on shipping would have been a new revenue stream for an international body that answers to no voter anywhere. Trump’s message to the delegates was that the United States will not pay into that system or let it reach into Americans’ pockets through the back door of a maritime regulation.

The IMO will try again. The administration and congressional Republicans have made clear they will be waiting.

No vote from Congress, no consent from the Senate, and no global tax on Americans, and Trump said it to the UN’s face.

Sources

More from The Rothman Report

She waited five years for a wheelchair lift. She says Veterans Affairs offered assisted dying.Paralympian Veteran Waited 5 Years for a Wheelchair Lift. She Says Canada Offered Her Assisted Death.The sheriff says there's enough evidence. Cook County prosecutors still won't charge anyone.Glenview Teen Shot Dead at Home: Sheriff Says Evidence Is There, Cook County Still Won’t ChargeRuled incompetent for 23 years and set free, he's now charged with stabbing a toddlerRhode Island Ruled Him Incompetent for 23 Years and Let Him Walk. Now a Toddler Was Stabbed in Her Stroller.