Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, on Thursday invited the 65 countries who had not voted to condemn President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital to party on Wednesday, January 3. The story was broken by Michelle Nichols, Reuters’ United Nations bureau chief in New York.
The 8 countries who voted no with the on the resolution, the 35 who abstained and the 21 who did not cast a vote have been invited to a reception by as a “thank you for your friendship to the United States” pic.twitter.com/x0qRs4AZlZ
— Michelle Nichols (@michellenichols)
Haley’s email invitation, obtained by Fox News, was addressed to the nine countries that voted no on the resolution, the 35 who abstained, and the 21 who just didn’t show up, inviting them “to a reception to thank you for your friendship to the United States.”
Everybody else stays home, with even less kind things coming to them from Washington, as Ambassador Haley promised before the vote.
Former US envoy to the UN John Bolton told Fox News that “the Trump administration needs to use this as a fulcrum to look at funding of the UN system more broadly.”
Trump himself told reporters on Wednesday that the US would base its future decisions on foreign aid on how those countries would vote on Thursday, saying, “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
This means there are now 128 countries out there who may need to rethink their budget plans for the coming year. The very first on that list alphabetically is Afghanistan, who relies heavily on US financial support. Egypt is also up there, currently receiving more than $2 billion annually from the US. Likewise Lebanon, which has just been awarded a fleet of US combat helicopters.
Both of the US north American neighbors, Canada and Mexico, abstained, so they get to come party.