Trump says UN has to 'get its act together,' UN pushes back

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the United Nations on Tuesday as "not being well run," although he said it has potential, while he stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, extended a halt to funding for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and ordered a review of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, Reuters reports. 

"It's got great potential and based on the potential we'll continue to go along with it, but they got to get their act together," Trump told reporters. "It's not being well run, to be honest and they're not doing the job."

"A lot of these conflicts that we're working on should be settled, or at least we should have some help in settling them. We never seem to get help. That should be the primary purpose of the United Nations," Trump said.

The U.N. pushed back against Trump's remarks.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "has worked tirelessly to implement many reforms ... to increase efficiency and innovation," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Washington is the U.N.'s largest contributor - followed by China - accounting for 22% of the core U.N. budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. The U.N. has said the U.S. currently owes a total of $2.8 billion, of which $1.5 billion is for the regular budget.