Macky Sall backs Trump’s push to “Make the UN Great Again” in bid for secretary general

Trump the former Senegalese president and leading candidate to succeed António Guterres embraces Trump's reform agenda and calls him a “peace builder.”

First Published: July 5, 2026, 3:48 PM EST

WHITE HOUSE — Donald Trump highlighted a leading United Nations secretary general candidate’s endorsement of his reform agenda by mentioning the source (see breitbart) on a Truth Social post on July 5, 2026 at 10:35 AM EST.

Here is the full post on [truthsocial]: “Exclusive — Leading UN Secretary General Candidate Macky Sall Backs “Peace Builder” Trump’s Push for Reforms: “Make the UN Great Again”: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/06/21/exclusive-leading-un-secretary-general-candidate-macky-sall-backs-peace-builder-donald-trumps-push-for-reforms-make-the-un-great-again/”

Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal and a front-runner to become the next UN secretary general, said he supports Trump’s vision for overhauling the world body. “He’s a peace builder, even if sometimes we have some problems today with Iran, but what he did is huge on one year of peace in the world, around the world,” Sall said in a phone interview. He coined the acronym “MUNGA” — Make the UN Great Again — to describe a shared reform agenda with the Trump administration.

Sall served as president of Senegal for 12 years and previously held the roles of prime minister and speaker of the national assembly. He also led the African Union from 2022 to 2023 and served as president of ECOWAS in 2015. His advocacy helped secure a permanent seat for the African Union at the G20 summit, representing a continent of 1.5 billion people with a combined GDP of $3 trillion.

The race to succeed António Guterres will culminate at the UN General Assembly in September, where candidates must survive potential vetoes from the five permanent Security Council members — the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom — before securing broader support. The winner will take office in January for a five-year term (see passblue.com). Sall has maintained close ties with French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he argues positions him to bridge deep mistrust among global powers.

Trump’s UN Ambassador Mike Waltz outlined the administration’s MUNGA vision in a previous interview, emphasizing spending cuts and the elimination of what the administration calls woke or redundant mandates at the organization (see breitbart). Sall embraced that framework and pledged to work as an “independent secretary general” who could bring major powers together on budget optimization and mandate reform. “We need to reform the UN, we need to optimize the reform, we need to avoid the overlapping of the mandate, and also to be more sufficient on the budget,” Sall said.

The United Nations has faced growing internal debates over structural reform amid warnings from member states about the institution’s relevance and efficiency (see devex.com). The secretary general selection process itself has drawn scrutiny from transparency advocates who argue it remains opaque despite incremental procedural changes in recent cycles (see globalr2p.org).

In the last 30 days, 76 of 505 Trump posts on Truth Social addressed the topic of foreign policy, underscoring the administration’s sustained focus on international affairs and global institutions.