The news is awash with stories about US President Trump’s visit to the UK, with most outlets focussing this morning on his comments on Brexit, supposed broadsides against the Prime Minister and the “Trump baby” blimp that has been floating across London in protest at his visit.

But we at UNA-UK believe the spotlight should be on the bigger issues that Trump’s policies are threatening: action on climate change and nuclear disarmament, and the survival of our United Nations itself.

These issues are nothing short of existential. And yet time and again, they have been sidelined, as the latest tweet or scandal absorbs our attention.

That is why UNA-UK again felt compelled to release a statement on the visit. This is not something we do lightly. As a UN-focussed, UK-based charity we don’t get involved in party politics, not in the UK, US or anywhere.

But over the past two years, there have been several occasions when we felt the Trump Administration’s actions were having a deeply concerning impact on global challenges, on universal values and on our rules-based international system: from pulling out of the Iran and Paris deals to defunding the UN Relief and Works Agency.

We know that you share our concern. So what can you do?

Write to your MP (there’s a handy how-to guide included in our Yemen campaign) and ask her or him to put pressure on the Government to raise these issues with their closest ally at every occasion, not just during the President’s visit. It was encouraging to see the President say in his press conference with the Prime Minister that he will raise nuclear disarmament with his Russian counterpart. The UK must hold him to this commitment.
Donate to UNA-UK We are the only charity in this country that exists to defend the UN, build support for its work and values, and make it more effective. We receive no funding from Government or the UN but rely on people like you to continue our work. Please help us.

Want to find out more?
Read about our work on the three issues we raised in our statement on the President’s visit:

Climate change: every year, we produce a compilation of new ideas, tools and best practices to tackle climate change in our Climate 2020 report
Nuclear disarmament: we regularly host meetings in Parliament on nuclear issues, and work with others to press the UK to take action
Budget cuts at the UN: as one of the few, and sometimes only organisation, monitoring cuts across the whole system, we publish original research and find partners to champion particular causes – for example on the impact on peacekeeping cuts on the people of Darfur in this report we co-wrote with Waging Peace

Thank you very much for your support,
Natalie and all of us at UNA-UK